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HIST A202 The Historian's Craft: Module #4: Managing Citations

This guide is meant to support the library instruction for HIST A202, providing tools for conducting research on American history.

Citation Management

This module focuses on what to do with great sources once you find them -- how to keep up with them, how to write with them, and how to cite them properly. By the end of this module, you should be able to 

  • Understand the value of a citation style in order to foreground a rich, accessible scholarly conversation

  • Use a citation management tool to integrate other scholarship into your own writing with footnotes and bibliographic entries

Before you begin the videos, please install/set up the appropriate Zotero tools and also take a quick look at OWL Purdue for Chicago style.

Video Script

Slides

Video 1: Academic Integrity

Installing & Using Zotero

At any point, if you need to figure out how to do something with Zotero, refer to their "Documentation" page

To write note and bibliographic citations manually, or to edit Zotero-generated citations, please refer to OWL Purdue's online resource for citing with the Chicago style. (Note that source types are listed on the left. You can click on a source type to see examples of how to cite notes (N) and bibliographic entries (B). 

Video 2: Writing with Sources & Using Zotero to Manage Citations

Integrating Sources

When integrating sources into your own compositions, try to do the following:

  • Signal the author's expertise and/or the work's angle
  • Quote, paraphrase, or summarize faithfully
  • Cite with a footnote and bibliographic note
  • Place scholars in dialogue with each other, where possible
  • Respond with your own perspective

If you were doing a project on the history of disco, how would you signal the expertise or angle of these authors' works:

Assignment: Practice Writing with and Citing Sources

  1. Pick one of your sources on your own topic

  2. Add the source to Zotero

  3. Write a short paragraph (3-5 sentences) in which you

    1. Reference the authority of the author

    2. Use a quote, paraphrase, or summary of one of their main points

    3. Respond to that point

  4. Use Zotero to cite the source with a footnote and a bibliographic entry

  5. Save your work as a single page and submit in Canvas as a pdf or .doc/x file

Please try to use Zotero. If you are unable for some reason, simply write the note and bibliographic entry manually, using the format rules on OWL Purdue.