One of my essay prompts asks me to discuss an issue (political, personal, etc.) I decided to write about a political issue, so I’m including things like stats. Obviously if this were a research paper I would need to cite, but since this is a college essay do I need to cite? It would look unnatural, but, at the same time, it feels wrong not to cite.
Any ideas?
Thanks!
Stop and look at the point behind the essay. It’s not that they care about your opinion on the topic. They’re not looking to be educated.
What you’re trying to do is to get them to accept your application; this is a sales job. And it comes with a word limit. There’s no way I would spend more than 2 words (“statistics say…”) on that aspect of the the essay.
But since you’re doing politics, I’ll give you the standard warning: These days politics can be very polarizing. Be very careful that what you write-- regardless of your opinion-- doesn’t turn the reader off. Again, no one really cares about your opinion; that’s not the point behind this essay. But be careful not to alienate the person who has final say over your possible acceptance.
The reader will be open minded. But he or she may not react well to being insulted. So be careful.
Maybe if you post the prompt here it will be easier to give advice. In general, though, if you get info from somewhere, you should cite the source, regardless of whether it looks natural. Looking unnatural is a stylistic error, not citing is an ethical error.