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[professor_pat]

Having now successfully terrified my students about plagiarism (whee!), I'm now getting questions about citations. A couple of students are asking how to cite when all the info in a paragraph comes from one source.

(Yes, I know, ideally it shouldn't in the first place -- but these are intro students and I don't want to give them too much grief about that aspect at this stage.)

If they just cite at the end, it seems like that leaves the first sentences ambiguous to the reader. But citing the same source after every sentence does seem overdone. I suggested to one student that she state at the beginning of the para something like, "As Joan Doe describes in Work X (proper citation),...." then "Doe continues by noting..."

Is there a "right" way to do this? I've required Chicago style for this assignment.

[new_bus_prof]

After every direct citation in a sentence, which means at least 5 words from another source should be cited within quotations followed by the citation. If the distinct idea/fact is from a source (paraphrased), then at the end of the sentence. 

Yes, if every sentence is paraphrased or a direct quote from another source, then each sentence should be properly cited. However, a good paragraph will have ~3-5 sentences from other sources, the rest should be your own words and ideas.

[ghillbilly]

From:  http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html

Q. I have been told it is not a good idea to document every sentence within a paper. But one of my professors does not accept a single footnote at the end of each paragraph as a proper citation. My question is this: If I write a paraphrased paragraph for a paper based on one source only, how many sentences in an average-sized paragraph are cited individually as opposed to being cited only once at the end of the paragraph?

A. The idea is to provide a citation every time it’s needed, not to follow arbitrary rules about numbers of note callouts or their location in a paragraph. You need a new note every time the source changes, and the callout should be located where it makes the most sense—at the end of a clause or sentence, if possible. Each time you use a different source (or a different page number in the same source), a new note is appropriate. If the contents of an entire paragraph can be attributed to a single source, then a single note at the end of the paragraph is sufficient.

[higherandhigher]

When in doubt, over-cite. Conventions vary in different fields as to how one should make things clear, but what is common is that it should always be clear to the reader which ideas belong to whom.

Depending on what one is doing, it is quite possible to have a paragraph devoted to summarizing/paraphrasing a single source (for example, in a literature review). The discourse should be structured to make authorship/ownership clear. In my field, it is quite common to state author's names in the text itself.

"Smith (2001) was the first to present a theory to explain the splitting of purple reeds in underwater basketweaving. She explained that this is a result of the color interactions repelling purple away from all other reed colors, providing empirical evidence from a study involving 500 baskets to support her theory."

[missemily]

If they just cite at the end, it seems like that leaves the first sentences ambiguous to the reader. But citing the same source after every sentence does seem overdone. I suggested to one student that she state at the beginning of the para something like, "As Joan Doe describes in Work X (proper citation),...." then "Doe continues by noting..."

If they cite just at the end, the reader assumes that all the ideas in the paragraph are from the one source, and nothing is from the writer of the research paper. If all the ideas in the paragraph really are from the source, then they are letting the source take over the paper.

This is a good time to teach them, as you say, to write, "As Joan Doe describes...." They need to take command of the paper and the sources, not just plop a paragraph full of ideas from a source and then cite the source.

[prytania3]

From:  http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html

Q. I have been told it is not a good idea to document every sentence within a paper. But one of my professors does not accept a single footnote at the end of each paragraph as a proper citation. My question is this: If I write a paraphrased paragraph for a paper based on one source only, how many sentences in an average-sized paragraph are cited individually as opposed to being cited only once at the end of the paragraph?

A. The idea is to provide a citation every time it’s needed, not to follow arbitrary rules about numbers of note callouts or their location in a paragraph. You need a new note every time the source changes, and the callout should be located where it makes the most sense—at the end of a clause or sentence, if possible. Each time you use a different source (or a different page number in the same source), a new note is appropriate. If the contents of an entire paragraph can be attributed to a single source, then a single note at the end of the paragraph is sufficient.

Here's the correct answer right here.

[higherandhigher]

Here's the correct answer right here.

However, if it's ambiguous as to what contents are being cited (e.g., if the reader might be able to think, based on the way the paragraph is written, that only the last sentence in the paragraph comes the cited source), then the author needs to utilize appropriate discourse to clear up that ambiguity.

[new_bus_prof]

For the author-date style of Chicago...
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/CMS_FAQ/Documentation/Documentation08.html

Q. The first time an author is cited in text it would appear thus: (Brown 1999, 34). The way I have been citing this author thereafter is (Brown, 56). Is that okay, or must I always put the year in the citation? If there is an author who has two works, I assume the year must always be reproduced. And if an author is cited with others, e.g., (Brown 1999; Harris 2002), should the year be put in the next time I cite only Brown?

A. Chicago’s author-date style includes the year at every citation. Although in many instances your shortening would be clear enough, it’s easier to include the date every time than to work out how to treat exceptions and confusions like the ones you raise.