Reviewing In-Text Citations (more good stuff from Joshua DeVries)
Say you have the following sources:
1. National Wildlife Federation. Rain Check: Conservation Groups Monitor Mercury Levels in Milwaukee’s Rain. Ann Arbor: Natl. Wildlife Federation, 2001. Print. [say the information you wanted to cite was on page 24 of this source]
2. “Sister Aimee.” American Experience. PBS Online, 2 Apr. 2007. Web. 30 Oct. 2010.
3. Williams, Jeffrey J. “Why Today’s Publishing World Is Reprising the Past.” Chronicle of Higher Education 13 June 2008: n. pag. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 29 Sept. 2009.
4. Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass. London, Signet: 2000. Print. [say the information you wanted was on page 78 of this source]

Fill in the correct information in the corresponding in-text citations
1. One source explains that Hg levels in rainwater have actually been increasing over the years (__________________________).
2. According to PBS Online, “evangelicals lived mostly in small towns and rural areas” (__________________________).
3. One author points out that “publishing has been undergoing a massive shift in the past several years” (___________________________).
4. As Lewis Carroll shows, the Cards are terrified of the Queen: “Why, the fact is, you see, Miss, this here ought to have been a red rose tree, and we put a white one in by mistake; and if the Queen was to find it out, we should all have our heads cut off, you know” (________________).
Signal Phrases – 5 Tips
1. Keep your signal phrases uncomplicated. Don’t mention the author and the title of the article and the publisher and the year, or your readers will get lost. Save that information for the Works Cited page or the in-text citation. ie. Issac Asimov, in his article “Inventing the Universe” from the 1995 collection Gold, claims…
Instead: Asimov claims…

2. If the author is important to what you’re saying, then mention their name; otherwise, you can save their name for the citation. ie. One author describes it as…

3. If you want, you can start a quote, and then introduce the author’s name at the first pause. ie. “It’s ridiculous,” Smith explains, “how many people haven’t heard of Doctor Who” (24).

4. Try to avoid using first and last names unless it’s an important person and you refer to them many times throughout your argument (in that case, only use their first name the first time you mention it). As a default setting, only use last names. ie. Hans Christian Andersen once said, “…
Instead: Andersen once said, “…

5. Leave something for the in-text citation. ie. On page 28 of his article, Stephen King points out that “the world needs more killer clowns.”
Instead: King points out that “the world needs more killer clowns” (28).

The Spartan’s Complete Guide to Integrating Information into Your Essay without Sounding Completely Lame

So, you’ve just spent hours and hours in the library gathering research and you’re ready to write your paper. What now?

Say you’re using the following book (which is a pretty awesome book if you’re into ancient history, by the way):

de Blois, L., and R.J. van der Spek. An Introduction to the Ancient World. 1997. Trans. Susan
Mellor. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2008. Print.

And you found the following paragraph:
“The Spartan king Leonidas and three hundred Spartan hoplites* attempted to hold up the Persian land forces at the pass at Thermopylae for as long as possible and fought themselves to death, but in doing so they did succeed in covering the retreat of the Greek army and navy. The Athenians evacuated their city and took their cattle along with them to the island of Salamis opposite Athens. Xerxes ordered the abandoned city to be destroyed, but his navy was defeated by the Athenians and their allies in the bay of Salamis” (de Blois and van der Spek 91-92).
* - hoplites were heavily armed Greek infantrymen who fought hand-to-hand

How would you incorporate this