Guidance on Documentation
See also: Documenting
Digital Sources
Craig W. Allin
Documentation in General: Documentation of specific
source is required for all direct quotations and specific facts beyond
the realm of common knowledge. Except when your reference is to a book
or article generally, that documentation must lead the reader to the
specific page on which you found the quotation or facts cited. Documentation
is important for both ethical and practical reasons. Ethically, documentation
gives credit where credit is due. Practically, documentation enhances
the credibility of your work by demonstrating its reliance on and relationship
with credible sources of information. Furthermore, others may need to
follow up your research. Without good documentation, your readers will
waste a lot of time.
Approved Style Manuals: Different disciplines and
different journals have adopted different standards to meet their specialized
needs. For the purposes of this class you are required to use parenthetical
citations and reference list consistent with one of four standards:
APSA, Turabian, APA, or MLA. If you are already familiar with one,
use it. If you are not, choose one likely to meet your future needs
and get to know it. Indicate the style of documentation you have chosen
to use--APSA, Turabian, APA, or MLA--in a parenthetical note following
the title of your paper. The official source book for each of the three
approved standards is listed below (each in its own approved format),
but they are summarized in other works and on various web sites.
-
American Political Science Association Committee
on Publications. 2002. The Style Manual for Political Science.
Washington, DC: American Political Science Association. [The
APSA Style Manual is based on the Chicago Manual of Style,
which is used by many book publishers. It provides relatively extensive
treatment of government documents. A summary version of the APSA Style
Manual standard can be found at University
of Wisconsin Writing Center.]
-
Turabian, Kate L. 1996. A manual for writers of
term papers, theses, and dissertations. 6th ed. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press. [Like the APSA Style Manual, Turabian
is based on the Chicago Manual of Style. It provides relatively
extensive treatment of government documents. A summary version of
the Turabian standard can be found on the Georgetown
University Library or Bucknell University Library web sites. Chicago or Chicago/Turabian style
documentation comes in two forms: [1] parenthetical citations with
works cited, and [2] footnotes/endnotes with bibliography. Don't confuse
or intermix the two.]
- American Psychological Association. (2001.) Publication manual
of the American Psychological Association. 5th ed. Washington, DC:
American Psychological Association. [A.P.A. is widely used in the
social sciences. A very complete on-line version of the APA standard can be
found at Psych Web.]
- Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.
6th ed. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 2003.
[MLA is probably the most widely used standard in the humanities. A
summary version of the 2003 MLA standard can be found at DianaHacker.com.
At the time this page was created most online pages still referenced
the 1999 M.L.A. Handbook.]
About Citing Government Documents: Among the style manuals listed
above, only APSA and Turabian offer much help citing government documents,
and the online summaries are less helpful than the full paper editions.
is a good source of examples for government document
citations in the Turabian style. The University of Nevada Library is a
good source of examples for government document citations in the MLA style.
Arizona
State University Library provides a government document citation generator
for APA and MLA styles. Introduction
to Basic Legal Citation by Peter W. Martin at Cornell University's
Legal Information Institute can provide more than you would ever want
to know about legal citations.
About your Bibliography/Reference List/Works Cited: Taken literally,
a list of "Works Cited" (the preferred heading in the M.L.A.
and Turabian styles) appended to your paper ought to contain only those
sources for which there are actual citations in the text. The headings
"Bibliography," "References," and "Reference
List" are somewhat more ambiguous. Regardless of the heading you
use, include all works upon which you relied whether or not they are
formally cited in the text. Do not include works that you located
but that proved not to be helpful.
Other Forms of Documentation: The Purdue University Online Writing
Lab maintains a web page that lists styles
of documentation by discipline and provides online links to web sites
that explain the use of each.
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