Research Journal Entry #6- University 106

In the essay I just cited, I found it fairly easy to cite my sources. Last semester was a completely different story though. I have been out of school for ten years, and honestly don’t really ever remember having to cite anything in my high school English class. We were also never required to write a term paper either, which I find extremely unusual now, but that is beside the point. For some reason, working on this most recent paper and citing sources seemed to come naturally to me. Perhaps because I learned last semester or maybe it was because I changed my strategy this time around. Last semester I had a difficult time meshing my sources with the other information in the essay. I felt as though I was trying to force a square peg through a circle shaped opening! I believe the main difference for this essay was how I determined the information that would be a part of my essay.

In the early stages of writing my essay, I went to the library, and found several books that seemed like they might have some valuable information in them. I scanned over them at the library, and decided that five of them would come home with me. As I made the outline for my paper, I knew the main points I would like to focus on and from that, sought out that specific information. Compared to last semester when I went to the library, found books, found information and made that the basis of the paragraph and filled in around it. This time I already had the points I would like to have stronger supporting information, and found the pertinent information. Once I had those several sources, I wrote my paper according to my outline and then sifted through my sources, adding them in where I felt they best belonged. After I was finished with this essay, I went back and read the essay from last semester. What a world of difference this made! The paper this semester seemed to flow so much better and the sources I used had much more relevance to the paper.

The reason it is so important to cite sources in your paper, is because you have information that may be scientific or someone else’s point of view. When you cite those sources, it shows that you have reached out and done a thorough job in your research. I believe it adds validity to your paper that you otherwise wouldn’t have without citing sources. It is required to cite sources for academic papers so you have an authoritative paper and also so you don’t plagiarize by using someone else’s words or ideas without giving them credit.