Crediting Others in Papers — 11 FAQ's

FAQ 1


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Question: Do I need to use quotation marks and/or provide a citation if I use someone else's thoughts or ideas, but not their words?
Answer:

A citation, yes; quotation marks, no (unless your wording is close to the author's).    Why?
Method: Place the citation at the beginning or the end of your description of the person's thought or idea.  If you preface the person's thought with an introductory sentence, you can place the citation at the end of that sentence, as in the first example below.  Otherwise, place the citation at the end of your presentation of their thought, as in the second example.  When presenting a longer chain of someone else's thoughts, you should provide citations for each main element.
Illustration:

Original passage from Rene Descartes' Meditations:

Whatever I have up till now accepted as most true I have acquired either from the senses or through the senses. But from time to time I have found that the senses deceive, and it is prudent never to trust completely those who have deceived us even once.

Presentation of these ideas in a paper:

First Example:

In Meditation I, Descartes offers an interesting argument that our five senses do not provide us with certain knowledge.1 He argues that we can't completely trust our senses, because they have sometimes provided us with false information.

Second Example:

If you knew for certain that someone lied to you, even on just one occasion, then you should regard all their future reports as less than 100% reliable. We can and should apply a similar principle to the five senses: if you know that your senses provided you with false information on some occasion, you should regard all their future reports as less than 100% reliable.. That principle, together with the fact that in the past your senses have misled you, entails that you should not completely trust your senses.1

1 Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, in The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, Vol II, translated by J. Cottingham, R. Stoothoof, D. Murdoch., Cambridge University Press, p. 12.