How to Cite Your Class Notes
I was wondering how to include material gleaned from class notes into a references or bibliography section of a paper. I did some searches and all I found were these four (professors?) saying not to cite class notes!
If anyone knows of a better answer please leave a comment. Otherwise, see if you can convince yourself to listen to these people:
http://www.utpb.edu/aguila/Document_files/references.htm
http://www.williams.edu/Chemistry/epeacock/EPL_CHEM_102/Info.102.html
http://home.wlu.edu/~mahonj/WritingPaper.htm
http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/paperref.htm
And no, they don’t recommend what to do instead.
Here’s what I searched for:
- “reference class notes cite bibliography”
- “Cite your class notes”
- reference class notes cite bibliography
I did find one site that says you can cite from class notes if you use a “personal communication” or a paraphrase. Ex: J. Doe(personal communication, October 30, 2006) stated that citing sources can be confusing.
However, this site also warned that you shouldn’t use this type of source very often, but rather use published research and added that you don’t have to reference this at the end of the paper. I hope you find this helpful!
http://umanitoba.ca/faculties/nursing/media/What-if-I-want-to-cite-information-from-a-lecture.pdf
Lara, thanks for the link. I guess the general idea is you are supposed to figure out whomever first thought of the fact/concept discussed in your lecture. Basically it’s just a lot more work for you
This is what I found:
Class notes:
Lecturer last name, first name. Course. Location. Date of lecture.
Stewart, Ms. Class Notes. English 3 Honors/IB. Trabuco Hills High School, Mission
Viejo. 26 Sept. 2003.