How do you cite a research paper?
I've always thought of myself as a pretty good writer and recently I had to write a research paper for my college music appreciation class on a composer and ended up getting a 50 strictly because of "citation." My whole paper was derived from only one source and that one source was correctly cited on the bottom page in my bibliography (or whatever it's called). Keep in mind there were no direct quotes or any exact wording in the paper so I thought there was no need for parenthesis or citation at the bottom of the pages since the whole paper was paraphrased from one source... how do I cite other than the bibliography page??? Thanks!
Comments
First, you need to find out which writing style you're expected to adhere to. Chicago style, MLA, and APA are the most common ones that I'm aware of. Each has their own standards. Once you know, you can google examples for citing other research. Typically, you partially cite in the text of the paper whenever you're using information from that source (usually author and date) AND include the fully citation on the bibliography page (which should be it's own page).
A good rule of thumb for a research paper is to have at least 1 reference per page. So, if you wrote a 4 page report, you should have at least 4 references. You should also verify with your professor what his/her expectations are regarding references and research quality.
Someone else's research paper is not a proper source for your research paper.
Sounds to me like you never learned how to write a proper paper, and/or maybe should have taken better notes in English class. But by the time you're in college it's assumed you'd know how to write a paper.
Oh, and just one source is not enough sources for any paper either.