I need to use a statistic in my essay, and was wondering what the policy would be on citing it, or if that's unnecessary in this case. Here's the sentence:
And the statistic is taken from a website I trust and use at work. As far as I can tell, I have a few options:It was just a statistic to me-"70% of 8th graders can't read proficiently, and most will never catch up"-an intellectual, not an emotional, issue.
1. Leave it as is
2. Add a citation (Source) at the end of the sentence
3. Add a citation *source at the end of the essay
3. Rephrase the statistic (remove quote marks) and don't cite
4. Rephrase the statistic and cite
5. Take out the statistic altogether
Obviously I don't want to do anything even vaguely hinting of plagiarism. At the same time, I think that including a citation might be distracting and a problem. However using this statistic to tell the story (I gain first-hand experience of the problem and it becomes emotional) I think strengthens my narrative.
Thanks in advance!
Brightwinds