> Dear Professor,
>
>   Hi, I am one of your students in your csc104 class.  I would like to ask
> you a few questions regarding the assignment #3.
>
> 1)  If I found an article from a magazine, do I have to print it
> out and hand it in with the assignment?

No, you only need to include a reference in the bibliography.  If
someone who reads your paper needs to look at the actual article, they
can look it up, based on the reference you have given.

> 2) If I didn't use the article in the magazine in my essay. Do I still have
> to reference it (put it in the bibliography page at the back of my essay)?

If you don't use it at all, then you do not have to reference it in the
bibliography.  If you've read it and you think that it has somehow
shaped your opinions for your essay, then you should include it, even
though you don't use it directly in your paper.

> 3) I found many outside sources, such as information in the magazines,
> internet and books, however, I didn't use alot in my essay?  Is that okay
> or do I have to use every single secondary sources that I found in the
> essay?  Do I have to reference everything even though I didn't use it?

No, you would not have to reference these resources that you did not
end up using.

> 4) In the assignment, you told us to find outside sources, however, you
> said we only need one or more footnotes and you said we don't have to hand
> in our secondary sources.

A footnote does not have to be a reference.  In fact, a footnote is
often just a sentence or two explaining a term, or adding additional
information about something.

> Then, how am I suppose to prove that I actually
> found a lot of information, yet, I didn't use it in the essay?

There is no need to have to prove that you found a lot of information.
The purpose of the bibliography is to show the information that you
ended up using, or to show information that somehow shaped the views
for the essay.  It is quite common to find more references than you end
up using in a paper, and you should not feel that you need to reference
every piece of literature that you found on your subject.

Hope that helps.  Best of luck with your paper.

A.L. Hunter
andria@cdf.utoronto.ca

--------------------------

> My essay topic is on "electronic comerce." Itz hard to get information from
> any scientific periodicals. Did u consider "The Economist" as a technical
> magazine? Do u define "technical" as sth of applied science or just of a
> particular subject?
>
> Thanks for your kind attention.

I am not so familiar with "The Economist" magazine, but based on the
title, it doesn't sound like the type of scientific reference that
we're looking for.  Have you tried the ACM and IEEE journals?  They are
available in the Engineering library on the 2nd floor of the Sandford
Fleming building.  I'd suggest looking at the journals from the last
few years to see if you can find something that is related to your
topic.  The material from your scientific reference does not have to be
the focus of your paper, but we do want you to go through the exercise
of finding a scientific reference paper, reading it, and using a small
part of it in your research paper.

A.L. Hunter
andria@cdf.utoronto.ca