What is the best way to reference information without overdoing in text citations in an history essay?

Question

For class, I am writing a history essay about WWII warfare and since this topic hasn't been covered in class my teacher would like all WWII information to be cited of course. My question is should I paraphrase as much as possible to avoid having in-text citations after every sentence because I'm also referencing from two different textbooks mainly. Also, how do you write in-text citations when your alternating sources. I feel my essay so far is filled with too many citations like this (author 1 and 2 pg#); or should I not worry about this at all?

** The following is a simple example of my essay (Not exact but close)

Information related to an established policy during WWII (Textbook1). Additional context of the policy during (Textbook1). A sentence that paraphrases the effect of a policy (Textbook 2 ). Analysis sentence. Another analysis sentence that. Concluding

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

In general it's better to paraphrase and put things into your own words than to rely on in-text citations. When you paraphrase, it's easier to incorporate your own analysis or perspective into the discussion. (For example: "While X happened during this period (Author Year, pages), contributing factors such as Y and Z informed public opinion of the events." --> Then cite other sources when discussing Y and Z.)

Regarding citation style, it really depends on what formatting system your teacher follows. Typically I'd recommend a few different options:

1. You can refer to textbook 1 as "(Author year, pages)" the first time, then for directly following citations you can just include "(pages)".
2. If you have several sentences or a paragraph citing from just one source, you could put the citation at the very end of the sentences/paragraph, such as "(Author year, pages, pages, pages)". You may also consider combining multiple author citations at the end of a paragraph, however if the authors have markedly different viewpoints or content, then this is not ideal.

If you really do need to alternate frequently between two sources, you could possibly take out the year in later citations like this:

(Author 1 year, pages) --> (Author 2 year, pages) --> (Author 1, pages) --> (Author 2, pages)

Again, it depends on the preferences of the teacher/grader. In general, however, I'd recommend keeping in the years and not worrying about it. You may also consider rewriting or re-structuring the text to allow for easier citations.