Question on citing sources?

Question

How do you cite random comments made by people in random articles? Do you even need to mention them in the works cited?

ex.) In a new york times article I found a random quote by someone. Would I need to cite the person or can I just put his statement in quotes and mention he said it? like "I believe so", said James Parker.

Answer 1

You would say "I believe so" said James Parker (Name of author of article, year of publication) then in the reference list put his name, the date, title of article, and newspaper name.

Answer 2

The point is to cite the reference wherever you got it. You do not have to cite the direct source, i.e., James Parker, but you do have to cite the source where you got the info.

This is APA standard.

Joe Blow writes in his article "James Parker Rocks"(date of article), "'I believe so,' said James Parker" (page #).

or

James Parker has stated that he believes so (author of article of title of article, date of article or n.d. for no date).

or

As James Parker said, "I believe so" (author, date, page #).

Here is a link to an APA crib sheet that will show you how to do a reference. (It's difficult because I can't use italics here.)

http://www.wooster.edu/psychology/apa-cr...

If you are using MLA, it looks a little different but you still have to cite your source. Otherwise, it's plagiarism.