1. Documentation and Its Consequences in Academic Papers
For CRTW, Dr. Koster’s sections

2. Audience & Context may affect your documentation
Some things about documentation don’t change from course to course—for instance what things you have to document, why, and what the forms are.
Some things vary from instructor to instructor, such as the penalties for screwing up. This presentation reviews both of these areas. Learn and benefit!

3. What do you have to document?
Any source that comes from outside your brain, be it quoted, paraphrased, summarized, or just grazed on a drive-by
Hearsay—things you heard one time on Oprah etc.
Information that would not be common knowledge to your specific audience

4. Prentice Hall versions…
6th Edition Also available as “sunflower” edition:
7th Edition
7th edition with new MLA forms

5. What are the REQUIRED parts to “documentation” in an academic context?
A clear indication to show where source use starts. This is done with a signal phrase: PHG 6: 363; PHG 7 & 7New: 400.
AND quotation marks on both ends if you’re quoting directly (unless it’s a “long” or “block” quotation; then see PHG 6: 358; PHG 7 : 395; 7New: 415).
AND a sign you are stopping: a parenthetical in-text signal to show where the source use ends. PHG 6: ; PHG 7 & 7New:
AND a way to retrieve the info—a full and correct reference in the Works Cited list. PHG 7New: 415 ff.

6. Can’t you just put the citation at the end of the paragraph?
ONLY if
All of the material in the paragraph comes from one source
AND there are lots of signal phrases throughout the paragraph so readers realize the source continues
AND there is no material from you or from other sources intervening
AND you don’t start a new paragraph
AND all of the material is correctly paraphrased
This is the most frequent problem in documentation and causes a lot of inadvertent plagiarism, so USE IT CAREFULLY. I don’t recommend it.

7. How do you cite a page printed out from the Web?
If it indicates where the original page divisions were, use those in the parenthetical citation: (Fallows 79). (Note: PDFs usually have original page numbers.)
If it does not show original page divisions, then you use the author’s name alone in the parenthetical citation (see PHG 6 p. 378 #14 or PHG 7 p. 414). If there’s no author named, then you use a short form of the title under which it’s listed in your Works Cited list.
[For instance, if you printed out Fallows in the web form or in the “printer friendly” form, you would just use (Fallows) in your citations because everyone’s printer is different-- so your page 3 may be my page 4…]

8. And how does that look in the Works Cited?
See 7New, pp. 430 ff. Older versions don’t work for this form; if you have PHG 6 or PHG 7, use the link below from Purdue. You have to edit this information into the correct format. Don’t just copy the form from the Dacus database listing. Fallows, James. “Dirty Coal, Clean Future.” The Atlantic Monthly (December 2010): Web. 1 March
New MLA style is described at

9. What happens if you get the forms wrong?
If you are making a good-faith attempt to document correctly but screw it up,
At the very least, for minor errors, it will lower the grade on paper at least two letter grades and maybe more
It may (and probably will) earn you an “F” if problems are extensive

10. What happens if you plagiarize, intentionally or not?
Will earn you at least an F on the paper
May earn you an F in the course, depending on the severity
Will earn you a date with the Dean of Students for a Judicial Code problem if I have any reason to suspect it’s intentional.

11. So what do you do?
Follow The Correct Use of Borrowed Information and the 7th ed. of Prentice-Hall Guide with the new MLA forms exactly and carefully. Note things like periods, commas, abbreviations, spacing, etc. All the rules count. You are responsible for following these and having the up-to-date versions.
Use the Purdue OWL MLA site:
Visit the Writing Center and use your conference to check fine points with Dr. K before you turn the paper in.
Use the originality reports on to check your work before you turn the final paper in