A Sense of Doubt blog post #3034 - MLA and Sources - Citation and References - Instructional Tip of the Day
Here's the next one in my tips of the day sequence.
It's worth noting and kinda funny that my recent "anger" series resulted from a major disappointment at work. During that week, I booted a post I was going to publish about rhetoric and pedagogy because I didn't give a fuck.
GREETINGS WRITERS!
Welcome to instructional tip of the day #3 on citing sources in the text of the essay and the references that correspond to those cites (the WORKS CITED) that appears at the end. Also, related is the annotated bibliography, which has its own page explaining: ANNOTATION?? What is it?.
Your instructor (hi, that's me, chris tower), I like BIG cites, and I like redundancy with cites. I also like (require) "locators," IE. where does the material you're sharing appear in the source.
SIP FORMAT AND IN-TEXT CITES
As described in part in yesterday's tip #2, follow SIP FORMAT: SIGNAL, INFORMATION, PARENTHESES.
Today, I want to focus on the P part, parentheses, where the in-text cite goes: Click here for more on parentheses.
This page, by my colleague Amber Lemiere, mentions that you MAY (not must) eliminate redundancy, IE. if you name the author in the signal phrase, you do not have to repeat that author's name in the citation. This is true, and the MLA Handbook repeats that advice.
However, in other classes outside of English, some instructors care about your in-text cites more than anything else and make it a major element of their grade of your assignment. So, making the cite large so these teachers can spot them helps avoid annoying point losses for missed cites.
Some teachers may tell you not to repeat the author in the cite, and then, do not.
However, this teacher (me again) requires it.
(Author pg#) - (Morrison 7)
(Author para#) - (Cracknell, para 17) or (Cracknell, par. 17)
Actually, (Cracknell, par. 17) is MLA format, but I like the APA abbreviation "para" better because I am fussy.
Locators are important, especially with paraphrases. The reader wants to find the material you're citing. The locator also allows YOU, the writer, to easily find it again. And, it's just good documentation form, even though MLA lists it as an "option" not a requirement.
I get it. No one likes counting paragraphs, and so THE PDF WORK AROUND.
PDF ORIGINAL PAGES: Often, from the library database, you download the article as a PDF, and since it had appeared in print on paper, the PDF is like a photocopy of the original with the original pages. Use those. Problem solved.
PDF FILE PAGES: More and more lately, the article comes in just a PDF without pages on the document, in these cases you can use the PDF file page numbers that appear in the PDF reader.
PARAGRAPHS: If you do not have a PDF and the articles lives on the Internet, then you should count paragraphs to give the reader the location of your material.
WHEN IN DOUBT, CITE IT OUT
Everything that is not common knowledge must be cited whether it's a word-for-word quotation surrounded in quotation marks (that's obvious) or a paraphrase/summary (less obvious).
If you know a lot about your subject because you came to the project with lots of knowledge OR you have learned a lot as you have worked on the project, you may inadvertently share factual material that should be cited because it seems general enough, and you're not actively quoting or paraphrasing.
However, sharing material from sources without citing or sharing material that is not common knowledge without citing is plagiarism.
95% of all plagiarism is unintentional and accidental for this reason.
When in doubt, CITE, even if you have to go get a source to corroborate what you already know.
What is "COMMON KNOWLEDGE"? If you walked around town and asked ten people a question and the answer is the information you are thinking might need to be cited, if 8 of 10 of them get the answer right, then no need to cite it. If not, then cite it. (No one expects you to LITERALLY go ask people; this explanation is a concept not an instruction.)
REFERENCES
We use MLA in this class not APA.
Make sure all your references are "correct" in MLA format before the final draft is submitted.
In-person classes will enjoy an MLA workshop review to help with this task.
Tutors and librarians are skilled with helping get your references in MLA format with all the required parts.
Relying on citation generators, Word's reference system, and/or even the library database cites may lead to errors. In some future classes, all these errors will get dinged in point loss and lower your grade substantially. Less so in this class, but the correctness is important and being wildly incorrect or using APA will see your work suffer a significant penalty.
Our MLA document created at LCC will help:
MLA 8 Works Cited Worksheet.pdf
LEARN MORE BY REVIEWING THE FOLLOWING:
Citing Sources - Writing Center at UNC Chapel Hill
Thanks for tuning to the learning that happens with these tips of the day!!
Tomorrow's will be on logical order and arrangement of paragraphs (organization).
peace, chris tower, your friend in learning!
https://sensedoubt.blogspot.com/
"The vacuum created by the arrival of freedom
And the possibilities it seems to offer,
It’s got nothing to do with you, if one can grasp it."
~ "Up the Hill Backwards" - David Bowie
#DisciplineIsAVehicleForJoy
“Always look on the bright side” - from THE LIFE OF BRIAN
#WritingIsRewriting
"An open mind is a curious mind ready to learn!"
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2306.09 - 10:10
- Days ago = 2898 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
No comments:
Post a Comment