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When Documentation Is Not Needed in Research Papers

Documentation is not needed for common knowledge, passing mentions, rhetorical allusions, and epigraphs. Common knowledge includes widely accepted facts, while passing mentions do not involve quoting or paraphrasing. Epigraphs should be used sparingly and do not require further documentation beyond the author and title.

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19 views

When Documentation Is Not Needed in Research Papers

Documentation is not needed for common knowledge, passing mentions, rhetorical allusions, and epigraphs. Common knowledge includes widely accepted facts, while passing mentions do not involve quoting or paraphrasing. Epigraphs should be used sparingly and do not require further documentation beyond the author and title.

Uploaded by

Sita
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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When Documentation Is Not Needed

Documentation is required for any work that you quote from or


paraphrase; that you refer to substantively, whether the reference is to a
specific place in the source (a page, a chapter) or to the source as a
whole; or that you acknowledge as the source of facts you provide or
ideas you formulate. But documentation is not required for every type of
borrowed material.
Common Knowledge
Information and ideas that are common knowledge among your readers
need not be documented. Common knowledge includes information
widely available in reference works, such as basic biographical facts
about prominent persons and the dates and circumstances of major
historical events. When the facts are in dispute, however, or when your
reader may want more information about your topic, it is good practice
to document the source of the material you borrow.
Passing Mentions
Documentation is also not required when you mention a work or author
in passing. For example, if you state that your favorite graphic narrative
is Fun Home, you have not quoted from or paraphrased the book,
referred to any aspect of it specifically, or used it to advance an idea.
You have simply stated that the book exists and given an opinion about
it. This is a passing mention. It does not require a source citation.
Allusions
When you are making an allusion for rhetorical effect—that is, making
an indirect or partial reference to a well-known passage that serves as a
cultural touchstone—you usually do not need to cite a source.
The Force was definitely with our team’s goalie when she deflected
the ball.
Junior year of high school may not have been the best of times, but
it wasn’t the worst either.
The female protagonist’s “to be or not to be” moment came when
she contemplated the difficulty of the journey ahead.
Epigraphs
An epigraph is a short quotation at the beginning of a work that
establishes its theme or mood, and they should be used sparingly.
Primarily ornamental, epigraphs are not discussed subsequently in the
text. Do not place an epigraph in quotation marks. On a line below the
epigraph, generally provide only the author and the title of the work the
epigraph comes from; no further documentation is needed, and the work
is not included in the works-cited list.
All these beauties will already be familiar to the visitor, who has seen
them also in other cities.
—Italo Calvino, Invisible
Cities
A quotation that you discuss in the essay should not also be treated as an
epigraph. Provide documentation for such a quotation as for any other
work you cite.

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