The Formal Report The Formal Report Documentation

Overview Purpose of documentation Documentation styles Appropriate documentation situations Parenthetical citations Reference list List of links

Definition and Purpose Documentation gives credit to the sources used within a work of research. Correct documentation protects authors from charges of plagiarism (taking credit for other people’s ideas).

Documentation Styles -- American Psychological Association (APA) –Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago) –Council of Biology Editors (CBE) –Modern Language Association (MLA) –Turabian – This link will take you to a chart that lists documentation styles and their disciplines. However, double-check with your department to be sure that the style mentioned in the chart is the one your dept. uses.

Electronic Sources/Styleguide Links There are links on the syllabus to sites housing style guides for APA and MLA styles regarding online documentation. Chicago Manual of StyleChicago Manual of Style This link will take you to some questions and answers about the Chicago Manual of Style. IEEE StyleIEEE Style This link explains the requirements of IEEE style. You’ll have to search these guides for information on citing online sources.

Documentation Situations The main rule is to document ideas that come from other sources. The exception is that general information and common knowledge don’t need to be documented. Document especially if material involves speculation or appears in only a few sources.

Types of Documentation There are three main ways to cite information: Quotations– the author’s exact words placed in quotation marks Summaries—your condensation of the author’s meaning Paraphrases—your rephrasing of the author’s point in your words, not his/hers.

Parenthetical Citations This example presented here is in MLA style. The specific rules may be different from the ones for your department’s style. Instead of using footnotes or endnotes for bibliographic information, place the author’s name and page number in parentheses at the end of the citation. Ex. “Kate looked around and saw another woman standing at the bottom of a flight of stairs” (Stabenow 85).

Reference Lists Depending on the style, this page may be titled Works Cited (MLA), References (APA), Bibliography, etc. This page contains all the sources you’ve consulted and/or cited in the paper (depending on your style’s rules), alphabetized by the 1 st listed author’s surname.

Reference Lists 2 Book information includes –All authors’ names, surname first (MLA). –Title underlined or italicized. –City (and state if city is unfamiliar) where publisher resides: –Publisher’s name (check rules to see if you include Co., Ltd., Inc, Press), –Publication date.

Reference Lists 3 Magazine and Journal Articles –Authors’ names, surname first. –“Article title with quotation marks (MLA).” –Magazine or journal title underlined or italicized. –Volume number. issue number (if paginated by issue [every issue starts with page 1]. Issue number not needed if paginated by volume [only the 1 st issue that year has page 1]): –Page numbers for entire article.

Reference Lists 4 Other sources you may cite include –Newspapers –Lectures –Government documents –Interviews (if interview text not included in an appendix, use parenthetical citation in text but don’t put interview in bibliography) –Electronic sources (Internet sources contain the date on the site, the URL, and the date you accessed the site).

Documentation Exercise Directions: Everyone will send to the discussion board forum (Documentation) the following: –The original passage your quote, summary or paraphrase came from –The way you incorporated the passage into your paragraph + the parenthetical citation/footnote/endnote –The bibliographic entry

Documentation Exercise Example Original Passage: Old Sam didn’t say a word to Kate the whole way, even when she brought his lunch to the bridge. It was a corned beef sandwich, too, with lots of mayo and mustard and a layer of lettuce thick enough to choke a horse, served on homemade sourdough bread, his favorite sandwich in the whole entire world.

Documentation Exercise Example 2 Quote incorporated into text, parenthetical citation, bibliographic entry (MLA style) The Kate Shugak seen at the start of A Taint in the Blood was surely not the same woman who didn’t tell Old Sam Dementieff that she could make pineapple upside down cake because he’d have her make one twice a week. Stabenow described Kate as being overly helpful, “when she brought his lunch to the bridge. It was a corned beef sandwich... his favorite sandwich in the whole entire world” (6-7). Stabenow, Dana. A Taint in the Blood. New York: St. Martin’s, 2004.

Links Documentation Style by Discipline Charthttp:// cmosfaq/cmosfaq.html Chicago Manual of Stylehttp:// cmosfaq/cmosfaq.html k-docum1b.html IEEE Stylehttp:// k-docum1b.html