Should you use or cite wikipedia as a source for an academic paper? the answer depends on your research topic. Wikipedia may be useful as a primary source on popular culture, or for subjects that have not been addressed in the scholarly literature. For more academic topics, however, it cannot compete with the library's specialized encyclopedias and online resources.

The library has more resources than you can imagine ask a reference librarian for assistance if you're unsure of where to begin. The wikipedia entry on postmodernism might appear well written and ends with a long bibliography. But compare this to the entry on postmodernism in the johns hopkins guide to literary theory amp criticism, second edition 2004. Rather than a generalist article on the subject, it is a critique of postmodernism that places it squarely within a literary context. The bibliography is more focused as well of the 21 scholarly works listed, only three appear in the wikipedia entry as of this writing. Unlike wikipedia, the articles in the johns hopkins guide and similar academic reference sources are signed. The postmodernism article was written by john mcgowan, professor of english and comparative literature at the university of north carolina.

He is an editor of the norton anthology of theory and criticism and the author of postmodernism and its critics. A search in the library's article databases returns an article in the journal of the midwest modern language association which contrasts his analysis of postmodernism with those of other scholars. This network of scholarly discourse allows you to interrogate the author's point of view in a way that is not possible with wikipedia. Furthermore, by following the threads of citation from one work to another, you can build an understanding of your subject. Articles in wikipedia may be well written and insightful, but they are not embedded in the world of scholarly discourse.

Without knowing who wrote the article, it is more difficult to judge whether the author's writing is worthy of consideration, or to critique his or her motivations or qualifications. When using wikipedia as a primary source on popular culture, cite it and analyze it accordingly. If we can further assist you in your search for information, please drop by the reference desk or contact the reference staff via phone at 435 634 2081. The purpose of the parenthetical citation is to lead the reader to an exact item in the bibliography, so the first entry in the bibliography usually author rsquo s last name, sometimes title if no author is listed is what is included in the parenthetical citation. plagiarism is using the words, thoughts, or ideas of someone else without giving credit.

Along with using someone rsquo s direct words without quotation marks and attribution, plagiarism includes using someone rsquo s thoughts or ideas and representing them as one rsquo s own. For example, if you were to change the wording of a passage, but not credit the source, you are plagiarizing as much as if you used the original words. This presents something of a conundrum: students are required to use the research and writing of others, but such use is limited. In most research assignments, students are encouraged ndash or even required ndash to use the research of others, but proper credit must be given. To ensure that you will give credit appropriately, begin by keeping your research materials organized. There are many note taking systems available to assist you, but it is essential that you keep track of which ideas came from which sources.

After finding good information from a reputable source, you must then integrate that information into your paper. There are several methods of doing this: quotation, paraphrase, and summary. Talman if we can further assist you in your search for information, please drop by the reference desk or contact the reference staff via phone at 435 634 2081. Talman for term paper writers, the draw of the internet can be hard to resist. All those facts and figures that you need are right at your fingertips through virtual encyclopedias, downloadable books, medical websites, and online databases from universities and government websites.

Professors tend to scrutinize web based research more closely since it is so easily falsified. The modern language association mla and the american psychological association apa have both updated their guidelines to account for proper referencing of online resources. Before using online resources to research your term paper, exercise caution and good judgment in determining which websites you’ll be using. You might want to ask yourself where does this website get its content? do the facts in this article come from a professional in the industry? are their resources clearly referenced and from credible sources? evaluating the credibility of a resource is important.

Credible medical websites have articles written by medical researchers and doctors and attribute each fact to a study published in reputable medical journals. According to the purdue university’s owl resource mla formatting and style guide the modern language association gives guidelines for attributing several different kinds of websites, as well as personal emails, web images and even discussion lists. The order in which the mla recommends citing websites in a research paper is author and/or editor names, name of the database, or title of project, book, article, any version numbers available, date of version, revision, or posting, publisher information, date you accessed the material and then finally, the electronic address, printed between carets. Further, they suggest you consider including the retrieval date, name and location url of a source. When referencing material in an online journal or magazine, using an archival or permanent address sometimes called a permalink is preferable. Material located on today’s headline page won’t likely be there tomorrow. citing this article in apa format would look like this: russell, lisa june 17, 2008. suite 101. retrieved february 10th, 2010, from once again, the term february 10th, 2010 is symbolic of the retrieval date. the american medical association style, the chicago style and the turabian / harvard style all have different guidelines for creating a bibliography reference.

Be sure to consult the recommended style guide for your course or assignment. when, in your work, you use an idea from a book, journal article, etc. When you insert a citation using the harvard style you must always state the author/editor and the year of publication. If you cannot identify a clear date of publication, you need to indicate in your citation and full reference that there is no date of publication. This should be done by using the phrase lsquo no date rsquo in place of the year in your citation and in the full reference the abbreviation lsquo n.d. The following examples illustrate the different methods of writing an in text citation. A recent study investigated the effectiveness of using google scholar to find medical research henderson, 2005. Henderson 2005 has investigated the effectiveness of google scholar in finding medical research.

Genetic Engineering Argumentative Essay

Recent research indicates that the number of duplicate papers being published is increasing arrami amp garner, 2008. Evidence shows that providing virtual laboratory exercises as well as practical laboratory experience enhances the learning process barros, read amp verdejo, 2008. If the work has 4 or more authors/editors the abbreviation lsquo et al' should be used after the first author's name. It is also acceptable to use 'et al' after the first author if the work has three authors. Social acceptance of carbon capture and storage is necessary for the introduction of technologies van alphen et al, 2007. If you cite a new work which has the same author and was written in the same year as an earlier citation, you must use a lower case letter after the date to differentiate between the two.