Introduction

This is the last lesson in the writing strand’s module about editing and proofreading a final draft, so we’re assuming that you’ve written an English paper with documented sources and that you are almost ready to turn it in. Think back to when you first got the assignment. Did your stomach do somersaults when your English teacher added, “Be sure to document your sources in the paper and make a list of the works you cited”? Did you think citation was necessary only in full-blown research papers? If you answered yes to either question, this lesson will be especially beneficial to you; in fact, it will be helpful to anyone who is preparing to hand in a paper that requires documentation.

While most writing assignments in English classes simply call for your own thoughts, some types of essays and research papers require information from other sources too. When you use outside sources, you must give them credit in the body of the essay and at the end of the essay in a separate, detailed list of the works you cited. In this lesson, however, we are not going to explain how to do in-text citations and write a works cited page; instead, we will focus on checking specific details about your documentation to ensure that you’ve properly cited sources in your final draft.