When to Cite Sources???
-When copying, word for word, a passage from your sources, it must be
put in quotation marks and properly credited.
-When your quotation is longer than 3 lines, it must be indented, without
quotation marks and single spaced.
-When copying a number of words (not necessarily an entire sentence)
from a source or a book, this passage must be put in quotation marks
and credited.
-When paraphrasing a passage or sentence from one of your sources,
the paraphrase must be properly cited. Even if you switch the words and
sentence structure around considerably, the passage is still considered a
paraphrase and credit must be given to its author.
-When using an idea, conclusion, framework, thesis, structure, or theory
from a source, it must be properly credited.
How to cite sources?
• Footnotes
– Sophie Quinn-Judge, Ho Chi Minh – The Missing Years, (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2002), p. 145.
– Ralph Bernard Smith, “The Foundation of the Indochinese Communist
Party, 1929-1930”, Modern Asian Studies, vol. 32, no. 4 (October
1998), p. 785.
– Ralph Bernard Smith, “The Foundation of the Indochinese Communist
Party, 1929-1930”, Modern Asian Studies, vol. 32, no. 4 (October
1998), p. 785, http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0026749X%28199810%2932%3A4%3C769%3ATFOTIC%3E2.0.CO
%3B2-I (accessed on March 26, 2008)
• Bibliography
– Quinn-Judge, Sophie. Ho Chi Minh – The Missing Years. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2002.
– Smith, Ralph Bernard. “The Foundation of the Indochinese Communist
Party, 1929-1930”. Modern Asian Studies, vol. 32, no. 4 (October
1998), pp. 769-805.
– Smith, Ralph Bernard. “The Foundation of the Indochinese Communist
Party, 1929-1930”. Modern Asian Studies, vol. 32, no. 4 (October
1998), pp. 769-805. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0026749X%28199810%2932%3A4%3C769%3ATFOTIC%3E2.0.CO
%3B2-I (accessed on March 26, 2008)
3
What about facts?
- Facts must be credited to the source from
which you got them, unless they are well
known. Facts that are usually not “well
known” tend to have the following:
-
Detailed information
Numbers
Contradictions
Available in only one source
Quotes
***if you’re not sure, CITE IT!!!***
Example
After the American attacks on Japan in August 1945, the Vietnamese people saw this event as an
opportunity to reclaim their independence from the French and the Japanese. On September 2nd,
1945, in front of a crowd of close to one million people reunited in Ba Dinh Square, Ho Chi Minh
stood in front of his people and pronounced the Declaration of Independence of the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam.1 Ho Chi Minh started his speech by quoting a passage from the Declaration of
the French Revolution made in 1791 stating that “All men are born free and with equal rights, and
must always remain free and have equal rights”.2 The new Vietnamese president added that:
For more than eighty years, the French imperialists, abusing the standard of
Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, have violated our Fatherland and oppressed
our fellow citizens. They have acted contrary to the ideals of humanity and
justice. […] They have built more prisons than schools. […] To weaken our
race they have forced us to use opium and alcohol.3
William Duiker, renowned specialist in 20th century Vietnamese History, suggests that Ho Chi Minh’s
declaration was “short and to the point” adding that Ho Chi Minh concluded it by asking his fellow
countrymen if they understood what he had just said which immediately led to a resounding “yes”.4
[1] David G. Marr, “Ho Chi Minh’s Independence Declaration”, Essays in Vietnamese Pasts (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995), p.
222.
[2] Ho Chi Minh, “Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam”, September 2, 1945 in On Revolution –
Selected Writings, 1920-66, ed. Bernard B. Fall (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1967), p. 143.
[3] Ibid., p. 144
[4] William J. Duiker, The Communist Road to Power in Vietnam, second edition (Colorado: Westview Press, 1996), p. 104.
Please visit the following websites:
UOttawa History Department Essay Writing
Guide:
www.history.uottawa.ca/PDF/HISTORY_ESSAY_GUIDE.pdf
Chicago Manual of Style Online:
www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html
UOttawa Plagiarism
www.uottawa.ca/plagiarism.pdf