Citing Sources

For this paper, we will be doing informal citations. For the argument paper, I will be VERY concerned with your research accuracy and your citation format, but for this paper I'm more concerned with the accuracy of your research than I am the format of your citations.

The general rule is that if most people don't know this information (general knowledge), you have to cite where you found it. So anything that you learned for this commentary, like information on skateboarding at UCF, how many students go here, or results from your interview with fellow students, has to be cited.

For the interview, use the following information:

Lastname, Firstname. "Personal Interview on xxxx (date)." When you refer to the person's interview in your paragraph, for instance to say that your partner thought that skateboarding was equally dangerous, you could say something like "According to Shelly Larson, who was run over by a skateboarder as she headed to class, skateboarding should be totally outlawed on campus." And then you cite the source on a separate works cited page.

For newspaper or magazine information, in the commentary itself, reference it like this: "In a recent Newsweek article, skateboarding was the number one cause of fatalities on campus." and in your works cited page, list the article like this:

Author's last name, Author's First Initial (if the author's name is listed). "Title of the Article." Newsweek. May 7, 2009. (23-29 (page numbers)).

For a website, in the commentary, say something like "On cancer.gov, the leading cause of lung cancer is listed as smoking." and in your works cited page, you would post a link to the actual page where you found the information, as well as the date you accessed the page.

If you have any questions about citing a source, as well as whether you need to cite a source, please ask in class on Thursday, as most of the class needs to know as well.

In the Lunsford book use the MLA format section for information on how to set up the works cited page (you can also find information on how to set up all of the citations here as well).