Iowa Central Community College
https://www.iowacentral.edu/tritonpass/triton_pass.asp
Smarthinking Writer's Handbook
Chapter 3, Lesson 15
Documentation
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Objective
This lesson provides an introduction to the use of documentation in
written assignments. It is designed to teach students the differences
and logic underlying MLA and APA documentation.
Introduction
In America, anyone who writes an academic or professional paper and
borrows information from another source must give credit to that
particular source. The information that a writer borrows can include
quotations, summaries, paraphrases, and any fact that is not common
knowledge; therefore, any of these types of information must be clearly
documented. By giving credit to the source, the writer also provides
readers with enough information that they can find the cited source if
they choose to do so.
Different academic disciplines favor different styles for citing
sources and writing bibliographies. The Modern Language Association
(MLA) style is the style you will most likely use for your English
courses or courses in the Humanities. The American Psychological
Association (APA) style is the style you will most likely use for
courses in social sciences.
When do you need to document
- Idea: You're reading an article as you gather information
for a research paper. You happen upon a great idea. You don't
necessarily want to use a direction quotation from the article; you just
like the idea. Remember: even if you use an idea that belongs to
another author, you need to document. Using someone else's idea without
citing that source is considered plagiarism.
- Direct Quotation: Any time you use an author's exact
words, you need to let your reader know that those words belong to
someone else. So, when you use a sentence or phrase that belongs to
someone else, you should put the other person's words inside quotation
marks. You'll also need to include a signal phrase and an in-text (or
parenthetical) citation (explained below).
- Paraphrase: When you take an author's words and put them
into your own words, it's called "paraphrasing." As is true with
referring to an idea that belongs to someone else, when you paraphrase,
you need to document. In other words, you'll want to let your reader
know where you're getting this information that you're paraphrasing.
Why document?
You want and need to document for a number of reasons, including:
- Show people where your information is coming from Your
readers might want to know more about your topic. If you document
properly, a reader can go to your sources to get even more information
about a subject that you refer to in your essay. So, documenting serves
as a road map for people who want to do additional research-- beyond
what you present in your writing project.
- Avoid plagiarism If you don't document, you run the risk
of being accused of plagiarism. Plagiarism is presenting ideas and words
as your own when they do not actually belong to you. Researched writing
is about bringing ideas and information together in one place. However,
if you don't make it clear that some of your information comes from
sources beyond your own experience and knowledge, you are
misrepresenting. Most schools have strict consequences for plagiarism.
If you're writing for a nonacademic audience and you plagiarize, it's
likely you'll lose your credibility.
- Give your essay or writing project authority When you
refer to credible sources, you give your text weight. If you refer to
experts in the field about which you are writing, your readers are more
likely to take your work seriously.
Styles of Documentation
As stated in the introduction to this lesson, you will use different
styles of documentation for different academic disciplines. In this
lesson, we'll cover two styles that are commonly used in humanities
courses (MLA Style) and social sciences courses (APA Style). Documenting
a source in an essay is often a two-step process. You'll learn more
about the specific steps in the sections to follow...
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