Writing In-Text Citations

So, now you may be ready to do additional writing on your mini-research paper to include in-text citations. These are the direct and indirect quotations you take from the articles and properly credit the source. *Plagiarism is avoided by relying on proper citations.

*Plagiarism is what we call the cut and paste jobs students do when they try to pass off the work of someone else as their own work. Learn how to do in-text citations and never be faced with the desperation that cut/paste and plagiarism attempts to make better.

One approach for using in-text citations is to organize your information using the S.P.A. method.
In this method, the student introduces the information to be taken from the source (the statement), states the quotation (the proof) and then explains what is proven or expressed by including this information (the analysis).
Statement, Proof and Analysis

In the example below, the STATEMENT IS BLUE, the PROOF IS GREEN and the ANALYSIS is RED:

Scientists have begun to identify specific genes as being responsible for certain behaviors and health issues. This kind of research may introduce new attitudes toward people and how much they can be expected to take responsibility for their actions. Obese people may start saying, "I can't help it, it's in my genes!" As Amy Harmon points out in her article "That Wild Streak," this research "is prompting fresh consideration of how much control people have over who they are and how they act." This change in attitudes, or "fresh consideration," would have a huge impact on how people are treated in our society. If people can claim their genes control them, perhaps alcoholics and those inclined to be criminals could also be treated to alter their genes!

Notice that the text in BLUE sets up the information to be taken from the article by Amy Harmon. Then, the information is included by using the author's name and title of the article. Finally (in red), the information is explained to show chnaging attitudes from genetic research and possible outcomes of these changes.