How to treat sources on Why School X essays

debs1121

In my why school X essay, I have mentioned specific research topics for several professors because they are in a field that I am interested in pursuing. These are not topics that are mentioned in the school's website; I had to do some research to find them. I don't specifically mention their published papers in the essay, but I did get the information from reading their papers. Do I need to document those sources (the papers) in the essay? I searched the discussions but haven't seen anything on this. I don't want to look silly, but I certainly want to credit where I found the information to avoid any kind of plagiarism. Thoughts? Also, on another essay, I have stated specific statistics; do I need to document where I found those? If so, would a footnote work? Any help is much appreciated... Thanks!

Eric25

A footnote like you suggested I think would be perfect! Better to reference it and acknowledge the source material rather than have them guessing and wondering why you didn't give credit to the professor whose work you're talking about. Especially for specific statistics!

debs1121

Thank you so much for your answer! That's what I was thinking too, but it helps to know that you think the same! Do I have to keep within the one page limit including the source or do you think it would be ok if the footnote is on the next page? Since I actually have 3 papers to source, I don't want the footnotes to take away so much space from my actual essay...

studyingandrestudying

In your essay, are you talking about the content of the paper(s) or just mentioning that the topics interest you? If the former, then yes, footnotes; if latter, then just naming the author and possibly the title or article topic is fine.

nessa.k13.0

If you are mentioning specific information from a professor’s work it would help to mention that professor as a reason that you want to go to that school. It shows that you have clear reasons for wanting to attend. Be careful you’re presenting it as: why you want to go to X school and not: I’m passionate about X theory/concept.

Seeking Perfection

I don't think you need to cite the prof's papers as evidence that they are in the fields they are in. If you take specific information from the paper, you probably should. Either way, I think that in a Why X essay, it would probably usually flow better to mention the prof's name and possibly published work in the body of your text.

Something like... "The groundbreaking work of blank prof in blank field which has had blank impact by introducing blank idea is an inspiration to me. Working and taking classes with professors like him/her as I learn to become a legal researcher myself first through (describe legal writing program) and then hopefully on blank Journal would be everything I could hope for from a legal education." would probably be fairly standard for the prose here. You can do better than this, but as much as I like using essays to take risks, I think Why Xs are more for concentrated flattery than opportunities for innovation.

debs1121

Since I am mentioning several professors and including references to their specific areas of research, I think I will err on the side of caution and include the footnotes. Thanks for all your inputs on this! This is the best forum ever!!