8 Revolution: Research Skills

Sometimes you may need to take a quote from a person that is in a secondary source because you do not have access to the original source. This is generally discouraged but sometimes unavoidable.

Mention both the original and secondary sources in the text, and list only the secondary source in the works-cited list entry. MLA requires you to use the abbreviation qtd. in ("quoted in") before the indirect source you cite in your parenthetical reference. 

For example, if I want to take a quote from Christine Chu, a college admissions counsellor, who is quoted in an article from U.S. News and World Report, it would look like this:

According to Chu, "admissions officers still want to see test scores if possible" (qtd. in Claybourn). Test scores like IB, ACT, and SAT are still necessary pieces of the application process in order to be accepted to a university in the US.

Works Cited

Claybourn, Cole. "A Complete Guide to the College Application Process."

     U.S. News and World Report, 22 Aug. 2022,

     www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/college-application-

     process.  Accessed 1 Feb. 2023.

When citing images, you have two options:

• Option 1 (preferred): Give full citation in a caption within the essay or project
• Option 2: Give the in-text citation in a caption and include the full citation in the Works Cited list

NOTE: For digital projects viewed "live" as presentations, you may hyperlink the caption to the location of the image/video. In grades 8-12, you need to also include the full citation of all images in the Works Cited list at the end of the presentation.

EXAMPLES:

How to Cite Evidence

1. Create the full citation and Works Cited page in Noodletools 
2. Use whatever comes first in the full citation as your "in-text" citation. This will point the reader to your  source on the alphabetical Works Cited list. Usually it's the author's last name or the title of the article or webpage.
3. In your essay, cite the Author or Title in the text of the sentence and the page/s in parenthesis ( )  when you use evidence from that source. If you keep mentioning evidence from the same source, you do not need to keep repeating the author's name. 

Ways to Use Evidence:

• Summary = shortening a section of the text to its main idea
• Paraphrase = Saying the same as a source but in your own words
• Quote = Exact words cut/paste from the text with quotation marks around the words "..."

EXAMPLE of Cited Evidence:

• According to Ducharme, the "lazy dog jumped over the brown river," (15)  which indicates that the dog was actually not very lazy. In a future scene, we see that the dog sleeps all day long and barely eats (21-22) which makes us wonder about the dog's health. But earlier, we had seen the dog playing actively with his other dog friends (12). The differences among the various types of behavior of the dog, lead the reader to wonder what exactly his status is. We feel concerned for the dog and annoyed with the owner who seems to be disengaged from caring about the dog's well-being. 

How Use Evidence in your Paragraphs

• USE the "ICE" Method:
  • I - Introduce your evidence
  • C - Cite your evidence as a summary, paraphrase, or quotation (include the page/s in parenthesis!)
  • E - Explain what the evidence MEANS - how it fits with your topic or argument. It's your job to tell the reader what to think!

EXAMPLE of I.C.E Method:

• According to Ducharme, the "lazy dog jumped over the brown river," (15)  which indicates that the dog was actually not very lazy. In a future scene, we see that the dog sleeps all day long and barely eats (21-22) which makes us wonder about the dog's health. But earlier, we had seen the dog playing actively with his other dog friends (12). The differences among the various types of behavior of the dog, lead the reader to wonder what exactly is his status is. We feel concerned for the dog and annoyed with the owner who seems to be disengaged from caring about the dog's well-being. 

Image via Middle School Reading