I always knew that citing sources was important, but I guess I had never really thought about why. I feel like everyone looks at citing sources as a requirement. Teachers used to tell us that we needed X amount of sources and Y amount of those sources had to be from a paperback book. This made it seem like they were just trying to make our lives difficult because the internet is so accessible and has many books in ebook form. Making us go to the library instead of looking at the same book online made citing sources an annoying, burdening task.
However, the truth is that filling your paper with other sources is not just about adding quotations to get that requirement done; it’s about finding pieces of information from other people’s thoughts and data that will in fact help prove your point. Just because some sources are not taken from the text being analyzed, does not mean they do not have the same value in a paper. Dispersing support from alternate sources throughout a paper can bring the entire paper up a level by giving it more credibility.
If it is apparent that other people share the same ideas with you, or have evidence that supports your analysis of something, your readers are much more likely to take you seriously and listen. Looking at the journal from Monday was interesting because I got to see descriptions of how outside sources were used in people’s WP1s. For example, to define terms, to bridge gaps between definitions and their example, to support their analysis, to aid in their intro, to emphasize their topic sentences, etc. I usually use outside sources amongst my analysis, but now I can see how many other functions it can offer in a paper. This is important if I want to give my papers more credibility by doing research.
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