by Morgan Drake Eckstein

Created on: March 28, 2008

One of the most important things that a writer needs to learn to do is how to cite and integrate their sources into their work. Most of us learned to cite sources in High School or College (University); unfortunately, some of the rules we learned are too severe for the journalistic style of writing that we do on Helium.

Citing one's sources on Helium is not the same style as used in academic circles. In academia, one's work is built up on top of the work of others; it is also being read by scholars, who in turn, may continue to build upon your work. The citing of sources in Academia is designed to give credit where credit is due, to allow others to trace the path of your research, and allow for the exchange of intellectual ideas without worrying that someone else is going to get credit for your work later. The academic style of citation serves that purpose; it does not work as well in environments such as Helium.

The Helium audience, the readers, are looking for quick answers, and to a lesser extent, entertainment. It is unlikely that they are going to need to track down your sources to develop work of their own. And when they talk about something interesting that they have read, it is more likely that they will say to their friends that they read an interesting article on Helium the other day than they are to say "According to this expert" They seek reading that is informative, and moves with the speed of the internet; the academic style of citation does not easily lend itself to this goal. Both the MLA (Modern Language Association) and APA (American Psychological Association), two of the most common academic styles, slow down the pace of a piece of writing.

So what style of citation works best on Helium? The same citation style that is used by magazines and newspapers all over the world: The Chicago Manual of Style.

The Chicago Style's purpose was stated best in A Writer's Reference, by Diana Hacker; it is to avoid plagiarism, and to acknowledge your sources. The most important part is to avoid plagiarism; do former and you have fulfilled the latter part of its purpose.

What is plagiarism? Diana Hacker says that "Three different acts are considered plagiarism: (1) failing to cite quotations and borrowed ideas, (2) failing to enclose borrowed language in quotation marks, and (3) failing to put summaries and paraphrases in your own words."

Now, let me ask you-did you know what words were mine (the paraphrase), and which ones were Hacker's (the quote)? Did you know

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