Stare At The Sun

If I am talking about a known historic fact, in this case, the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 caused by Rosa Parks, where should I cite that from?

My profs say to use a scholarly source, but I'm having trouble finding one that just gives a historical account of the event.

I'm not really sure what to cite, or if I even really need to.

So I guess my bigger question is, where is the line drawn for stuff like this? I mean, its not like someone did a bunch of research to come up with this information, its historical fact.

I've never understood that about citing...help me please!

(APA format also, if that matters -_-)

CinnamonGirl

I guess it depends on how in depth you go with the information. I would think Rosa Parks refusing to get up would be common knowledge, and therefore wouldn't need citation. If you directly quote her, or go into more detail, though, you'd need to cite.

In this case, maybe a book about the boycott, or a biography on Rosa Parks, depending on what angle you're taking.


hmmm...maybe an encyclopedia would work. Unbiased, and all that. All of my former English profs have seemed to have the idea (and I agree, at least for research papers) that an encyclopedia was a good starting point, but in no way should it be your primary source.

And sorry, I know nothing about APA format... I've always used MLA.

__________________
"...for though she was ordinary, she possessed health, wit, courage, charm, and cheerfulness. But because she was not beautiful, no one ever seemed to notice these other qualities, which is so often the way of the world."


"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

dippin

an encyclopedia works. Then there is always official websites. I say official because you should never quote wikipedia, or some personal website.

As for formatting citations, the easiest thing ever is installing the zotero plug in for firefox.

Zotero: The Next-Generation Research Tool

archetypal fool

I don't know how helpful it would be in this case (I'm a science man, and this method works wonders for scientific topics), but if you're really desperate, look up the event on Wikipedia and take a look at whatever sources are cited in the article. Obviously, don't just steal citations, but rather try to find the sources, give them a read, then use them yourself if at all possible. This is my preferred method for finding just-in-case sources for things that are freaking obvious and/or common knowledge. (I once got points marked off because I didn't cite that the mammalian heart has 4 chambers. I've never been more insulted academically.)

__________________
I have my own particular sorrows, loves, delights; and you have yours. But sorrow, gladness, yearning, hope, love, belong to all of us, in all times and in all places. Music is the only means whereby we feel these emotions in their universality. ~H.A. Overstreet

Daniel_

an article contemporaneous to the event in a journal of record should do it too.

See if you can find the report in the NY Times.

Not that I'm advocating it, but if you know the day it happened, you can be fairly sure it was in the times that week, and fairly sure people wont look up your references, so if you were foolish enough to make the up, you'd not be found out in most cases, but on the downside it is accademic fraud.

__________________

╔═════════════════════════════════════════╗
Overhead, the Albatross hangs motionless upon the air,
And deep beneath the rolling waves,
In labyrinths of Coral Caves,
The Echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand;
And everthing is Green and Submarine
╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝

Baraka_Guru

Try this:
Wright, H. R: The Birth of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Charro Book Co.,Inc.,1991. ISBN 0-9629468-0-X

The other option would be to find an article that covers it on an online journal database such as JSTOR.org.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

roachboy

it really depends on the role the situation you're talking about plays in the paper.


typically, you do not need to cite if all you're doing is mentioning that such-and-such even happened in the world at this point in time.
citations are usually linked to interpretations of events or situations rather than to the events of situations themselves.
but if your paper is about rosa parks (say) and establishing the sequence of events around the bus actions in montgomery is a matter of some dispute--or if it's the analytic center of your paper, then you just cite the material that you're using to construct the narrative. you can usually do this at the end of a paragraph.

i've taught history at university for quite a while (tho not at the moment)--that's why im a bit confused about the question and what exactly you're asking about.

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

inBOIL

I have a related question: To what extent does your intended audience affect the need for citation? In the OP's example, would there be any difference in writing a paper for an African-American studies class taken in the U.S., as opposed to a general history class at a foreign university? (ignoring any differences in citation style.)

__________________
And you believe Bush and the liberals and divorced parents and gays and blacks and the Christian right and fossil fuels and Xbox are all to blame, meanwhile you yourselves create an ad where your kid hits you in the head with a baseball and you don't understand the message that the problem is you.