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All the documentation styles require that you indicate indebtedness to a
source in the body of your paper while you are presenting information.
However, you don't need to clutter the body of your paper up with Internet
addresses. Just give the briefest reference you can, so that interested
readers can turn to the end of your paper to find the source. When in
doubt, use as your guide the format your discipline requires for an article
in a scholarly journal.
The Modern Language Association (MLA) Style
Parenthetical citations are used in the body of the paper to indicate the
source, which is then listed at the end of the paper in the Works Cited.
However, parenthetical citations require page numbers, which electronic
sources do not ordinarily have. So you will not need parenthetical
citations for your electronic sources. Instead, as you present information,
incorporate the author or organization smoothly into your sentence.
Jason P. Mitchell interprets Maggie and Big Daddy as
"less sympathetic" and Brick as "more compelling"--
based on Tennessee Williams's comments in an
interview published in 1955.
The reader of your paper could then turn to the Works Cited where you
would have listed the complete reference.
Mitchell, Jason P. "The Artist as Critic: A
Reconsideration of Brick Pollitt."
<http://sunset.backbone.olemiss.edu/
%7Ejmitchel/misphil.htm 23 May 1996.
The American Psychologists Association (APA) Style
The APA style requires that the date be given after the author's name
when a source is used. Therefore, in parentheses, give the date of original
publication or the date you accessed the material if it could have been
modified in the meantime.
California State University (1996) reports that "Online
Distance Learning . . . promises to be a major force
in the future of education."
Your References page will give this listing:
California State University. (1996 26 July).
"California Distance Learning Project."
<http://www.uol.com/cig-
shl/dbml.exe?Action=Query&Template=
/cftemplate/Partners.dbm&Margin_ID=27/29/96>.
The American Chemical Society (ACS) Style
In the body of your paper, insert a raised number to indicate each source,
numbering in sequence as each source is referred to for the first time. Use
the same identifying number every time a particular source is referred to
later in the paper. The numbered bibliography gives the sources in the order
in which they were first cited.
For example, this quotation might be your first use of researched material
in your paper:
"These data suggest that a high intake of mercury from
nonfatty freshwater fish and the consequent
accumulation of mercury in the body are associated
with an excess risk of AMI [acute myocardial
infarction] as well as death from CHD, CVD...."i
Your References list would begin:
| (1) |
Salonen, JT, Sepp:anen, K, Nyss:onen K,
Korpela H, Kauhanen J, Kantola M, Tuomilelhto
J, Esterbauer H, Tatzver F & Salonen R.
"Intake of Mercury from fish, lipid
peroxidation, and the risk of myocardial
infarction and coronary, cardiovascular, and
any death in eastern Finnish men." Circ
91(3):645-655 (1955) Abstract
<http://www.infoseek.com> (7/1/96). |
The Classic Footnote (or Endnote) Style
In this style, you also use raised numbers in the body of your paper, but
the numbers refer to a specific note that gives the bibliographical
information plus page number--or date with a source from the Internet. With
this method, you often can omit a separate bibliography; check with your
teacher.
Start numbering consecutively, beginning with the number one after the first
presentation of research information. Use a different number for each
presentation of information (regardless of whether the source is the same or
different). In the body of your paper, it would look like this:
If Morning Ever Comes, Anne Tyler's first novel, was
written when she was just twenty-two.2
Then, either at the foot of the page where you gave the information (for
footnotes) or in a numerically ordered list at the end of the paper (for
endnotes), you provide the source of the information for each corresponding
number in your paper--like this:
2 Random House. "About the Author."
<http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/read/ladder
/tyler.html> (15 June 1996).
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