A few days ago
Lee

In a research paper, when is it okay to not “cite”?

I’m working on a research paper for school, and I am wondering if I have to cite everything I find even though it may not be direct qoutes or excerpts (my own conclusions based on the data available to me.) Also, do I have to find supporting evidence for something that any reasonable person would think is ‘common sense’ (ie. reading helps comprehension?)

Top 4 Answers
A few days ago
grt_n_pwrfl_oz

Favorite Answer

According to my old professors, you need to cite every statement you make which is not “common knowledge” – i.e. you do not need to cite the fac that the sky is blue, but if you suggest a reason *why* it’s blue, you will need to cite that. Common sense and common knowledge are not the same, so I would probably cite the reading thing to be safe. And FYI from a reading teacher, reading only counts are reading if you *are* comprehending it. Otherwise you’re just decoding words. 🙂
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A few days ago
ckcool192000
Anything that is direct qoute from any source needs to be cited. If you read something and the summarize the source you could still say somthing like…accouding to the New York Times…etc..

You may not need to find support evidence common sense stuff, but consider that what you think is common sense may not be to someone else. If you can find supporting evidence it will only serve to make your point stronger.

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A few days ago
Aly
If it’s something that MOST people would already know, you don’t have to cite. But if you think something because of information that someone gave you, you’re using their ideas, so you DO need to cite them.

http://www.citationmachine.net is a great website that will help you do citations easily!

Good luck!

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A few days ago
LibraryGal
All direct quotes, excerpts, summarizations and paraphrases must be cited in your “works cited” page and/or footnotes.
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