It is essential to cite your sources, whether you are paraphrasing or using direct quotation or reusing text word for word. We designate direct quotes using quotation marks and we provide attribution through a citation to text from which you drew the quote.
Whether you are using a library catalog, article/research database, Google Scholar, or a generative AI tool to identify information you will always need to cite your source--author, place of publication, date of publication, page numbers, URLs. Another reader should be able to find their way to your source. You may want to review the Penn Libraries' guide to AI Ethics and Pitfalls.
Below you will find examples of how to set up and cite a direct quote.
"In these contexts, schools become sites of fear rather than sites of engagement, reflecting the limitations rather than the potential of students."
from Gadsden, Vivian L. “Gender, Race, Class, and the Politics of Schooling in the Inner City.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 673, no. 1 (September 2017): 12–31. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716217723614.
When schools shift their focus from education to discipline, they become sites of fear rather than sites of engagement (Gadsden 18).
This quote doesn't use quotation marks, even though it cites the source.
When schools shift their focus from education to discipline, they "become sites of fear rather than site of engagement" (Gadsden 18).
When schools become disciplinary sites of fear rather than places where students feel nurtured or excited about learning, those students are less likely to perform well.
This quote doesn't use quotations marks. Even though it is only three words, it is clearly a turn of phrase that is Gadsden's and carries her ideas.
When schools become disciplinary "sites of fear" rather than places where students feel nurtured or excited about learning, those students are less likely to perform well (Gadsden 18).
Many citation guides recommend against citing text from AI, but if you do use text from AI you should always make it transparent that you have done so. The Chicago Manual of Style recommends pointing to a public and digitally archived copy of your AI transcript. Cite the tool or publisher in your text or in a note but generally not in your bibliography. AI is not an author. You are the author and responsible for the validity of your content. For detailed instructions on citation, see the Chapter 14.112 of the Chicago Manual of Style.
When you find a quotation that you want to use, but did not find it directly from the original source, but through one author quoting another author, you need to be precise about where you are taking the quotation.
Moving beyond an anticorporate focus, the CFS movement recognizes community gardens as "commons ... that expand and deepen cultural and ecological vision and mold citizenship" (DeLind 2002, 222).
from Baker, Lauren E. "Tending cultural landscapes and food citizenship in Toronto's community gardens." The Geographical Review, vol. 94, no. 3, 2004, p. 305-325.
Community gardens are more than spaces to grow food. They are also spaces "that expand and deepen cultural and ecological vision and mold citizenship" (DeLind 2002, 222).
This quote is plagiarism because it presents the article author's research as the writer's own research. The best scholarly practice would be to read the DeLind article, choose your own selection from it for your analysis, and then cite DeLind. Otherwise you need to cite that it is quoted in the Baker article.
Community gardens are more than spaces to grow food. As Laura DeLind says, they also "expand and deepen cultural and ecological vision and mold citizenship" (qtd. in Baker, 309).
