Homework Help-When to cite sources in research paper

<p>I need to write a research paper in MLA format on a poet and analyze how 2 poems were the inspiration of a certain event in his or her life. When speaking about the author, what exactly do I need to cite? </p>

<p>"Jimmy John was lived in New Haven, CT."</p>

<p>"He wrote the book, Leaves of Grass." </p>

<p>"He worked as a publisher for the Connecticut press for 20 years."</p>

<p>In those examples, would that be considered common knowledge or would I need a citation? If they need citations, wouldn't everything in the paper need a citation then?</p>

<p>Ahhh this is so frustrating lol.</p>

<p>Edit: I just read the "No Homework Posts" thread. I apologize. With that said, please let me get some replies before deleting the thread. Thanks</p>

<p>Homework help posts don’t go here but I’ll go ahead and answer your question.</p>

<p>After you say the first thing that draws information from a source, do an in-text citation at the end of that sentence. To do that citation, you put the first word of bibliography entry in parentheses followed by the page number, if applicable. Usually, that’ll be the author’s last name, so a correctly cited paper might look like this:</p>

<p>“Jimmy John lived in New Haven, CT (Smith 17). He wrote the book, ‘Leaves of Grass.’ He worked as a publisher for the Connecticut press for 20 years (Johnson 8).” </p>

<p>You don’t have to cite a work twice, so if the source of a ton of things is the same, you’re good with just one citation. In that example, the first two facts came from one source, and the third from a second source.</p>

<p>Thanks for the reply. I know how to create in-text citations; I just need to know what information needs one. </p>

<p>Everything except extremely common knowledge. If you didn’t know it when you were 10 you should probably cite it.</p>