1. To give credit where it is due. You are, after all, taking someone else's ideas, knowledge, etc. The least you can do is to give them credit for it (especially if it might be wrong).

2. To increase your credibility. Why should anyone believe you (or me) about the dangers of nuclear waste, about when a fetus is a human being, about the cost of space exploration, etc.? It is perfectly acceptable, even necessary for non-experts to discuss -- and write about -- questions such as these. But if we want to be taken seriously, we need to show that we have done some studying ourselves. By citing experts in the field, in other words, we can increase the strength of our arguments.

3. To allow the reader to find more information. If you are really interested in something that you are reading about, you will probably want to find still more that is written about the topic. Your documentation (citations) enable your readers to find your source material and read it for themselves -- including the materials that you did not quote or paraphrase.

      There are two main systems for reporting your source material within your writing. They are the APA (American Psychological Association) and the New MLA (Modern Language Association). We will be using the new MLA, but the logic behind both systems is essentially the same. Once you understand this logic, documentation should be relatively easy to do.
      The main objective of documentation is to enable your reader to find (physically) the page or other source where you got the information. Suppose, for example, that someone is reading your essay and reads a quotation or a paraphrase of someone else's ideas. Where did it come from? After the quotation or paraphrase, you should have included parentheses ( ) within which you included just enough information for your reader to find your source in your "Works Cited" list. In almost every case, therefore, what you put in the parentheses are the first words from that source's listing in your "Works Cited." (See the Guide for examples.) Unless your written source is only one page long, this ALWAYS includes the page number. Your reader, in other words, should be able to look at the information within the parentheses, go to your "Works Cited" list, and find the source. The "Works Cited" list should include the author's name, the title, etc., as explained in the Guide. Because a "Works Cited" list can become very long, you should arrange the items in it in alphabetical order to make them easier for your reader to find.

1. In the text, give two things:

A. just enough information for the reader to find the work in the "Works Cited List"
B. page references.

A. include all required information,
B. arrange the list in alphabetical order.

     Although you are expected to incorporate research sources into a research paper, some students are under the misconception that such a paper is just a collection of other people's ideas, facts, and even organization. In a research paper, your job is to ask a question, search for information that would answer it, and then evaluate that information, come to some conclusions about it, and organize it to support your conclusions. Since whatever you write is taken to be your idea or your knowledge, this raises the question of how you should introduce other people's ideas into your writing.
     The thesis and topic sentences of your essay should always be yours. Don't begin a paragraph with a paraphrase. Rarely, you can begin one with a quotation. (The quotation marks will indicate that you are presenting someone else's idea.) As you research a topic, you will find some information in numerous sources. This is considered common knowledge. Some of it, you will remember. Whatever you can write, as you draft your essay, without looking at your source material, is considered to be your ideas or knowledge. When you do refer to your notes or to sources as you draft, you should put an in-text citation (in parentheses) at the end of that material, and you should introduce that material with an introductory phrase (to let your reader know that what is coming is someone else's idea or opinion).
      Examples of introductory phrases are:

According to Mark Newman, a biologist at the Center for Disease Control, ....
Earnest Hemmingway, a well-known novelist, claims that ....
In the words of Mary Sheffield, who has just returned from Hong Kong, "...."