Please post 1-3 questions that you have about bibliographic citations or the college research process (be as specific as possible with your questions!) and RESPOND to at least 2 questions posted by your classmates. Professor Densmore and Professor Rodgers will both be reading and responding to these posts.
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GA10: 1. Are we using MLA format for bibliography entries or will it be another type of format like APA or Turabian style?
2. Is it possible to cite an anonymous work?
3. How many bibliographic citations are good for a research project?
Thanks for these questions, Maricel. We will be using MLA format for bibliographic citations for our course. Regarding your second question, could you try to look up an answer to this on the Purdue OWL website? If you could let us know if you were able to find an answer on Thursday, I would appreciate it. Regarding your third question, the answer really depends on the scope and length of the research project you are working on. For a twenty page paper, it is common to have anywhere from twenty to fifty sources. For most college research papers, ten sources are usually fine. For our mini-research project for this course, we will only be dealing with three or four sources.
GA10
Do we have to include the website URL when writing a website based bibliography?
How do you properly cite a quote according to the MLA format?
Is a citation still valid if the author/publisher/date of the article is unknown?
Art,
You will find the answers to all of these questions in your English handbook. Could you do that and post the answers that you find?
Thanks.
Art-
You can also cite online sources using the tools at EasyBib, (http://www.easybib.com/). Not all internet sources are cited the same way (an article from a journal in a database is different than a blog post), but if you select “All 59 options” from the tabs, you can see how different kinds of resources work.
You will have to use some of your best judgment when filing out the fields in online citation tools, and you will want to verify that any auto-fill options are correct. Your handbook or the Owl at Purdue are good places to look for examples.
GA10:
1) Is there a difference between a bibliography and works cited?
2) Can I still cite something that does not have all the requirements needed to be cited? For example, media type, publication title, publisher etc.
3) Do the bibliographic citations have to be in alphabetical order?
Thanks for these questions! For our purposes, there are no differences between a Bibliography and a Works Cited. Both are lists of sources that you have consulted and used to write a research paper. Regarding your second question, you will always want to compile as much information as you can about a source, i.e., title, publisher, media type, etc. However, there are some instances when an article may have no author, in which case, you use the following format, according to the Purdue OWL:
Anonymous Articles
Cite the article title first, and finish the citation as you would any other for that kind of periodical.
“Business: Global Warming’s Boom Town; Tourism in Greenland.” The Economist 26 May 2007: 82. Print.
“Aging; Women Expect to Care for Aging Parents but Seldom Prepare.” Women’s Health Weekly 10 May 2007: 18. Print.
Regarding question #3, the answer is YES.
GA10:
1) How do I know if a source is a reliable source?
2) What is a citation?
3) What does it mean to write in a hanging indent style?
Sarah,
#1 is a great question and one that is not always as easy to answer as it appears to be. Here are two answers:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/553/1/
http://writingcommons.org/open-text/collaboration/170-common-comments/supporting-sources/630-what-might-be-a-more-credible-reliable-source
Here is a great checklist to use:
Evaluating your sources
Before deciding whether or not to incorporate what you have found into your literature review, you need to evaluate the resources to make sure that they contain information which is valuable and pertinent. This is especially true when the resources you retrieved are not collected by an academic library, but conveniently accessible through Internet search. Web resources need more careful thought to ensure their quality. Thus it is always a good practice to begin your search using our Library Catalogue and databases for more authoritative and reliable resources.
Evaluation Criteria
Accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency and coverage are the five basic criteria for evaluating information from any sources.
Questions to ask:
Accuracy
Is the information reliable?
Is the information error-free?
Is the information based on proven facts?
Can the information be verified against other reliable sources?
Authority
Who is the author?
Does he or she have the qualifications to speak/write on that topic?
Is the author affiliated with a reputable university or organization in this subject field?
Objectivity
What is the intended purpose of the information?
Is the information facts or opinions?
Is the information biased?
Currency
When was the information published?
Is the information current or out-dated?
Does currency matter in this topic?
Coverage
Does the information covered meet your information needs?
Does it provide basic or in depth coverage?
Source: http://libguides.library.cityu.edu.hk/content.php?pid=240744&sid=2049336
2/ A “citation” is a reference to a source. There are two types: in-text and bibliographic citations.
3/ “Hanging indent style” just means that you indent the second line of a citation. Most of the bibliographic citations on the Purdue OWL use this style and you can see examples of it there.
Sarah,
#1 is a great question and one that is not always as easy to answer as it appears to be. Here are two answers:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/553/1/
http://writingcommons.org/open-text/collaboration/170-common-comments/supporting-sources/630-what-might-be-a-more-credible-reliable-source
Here is a great checklist to use:
Evaluating your sources
Before deciding whether or not to incorporate what you have found into your literature review, you need to evaluate the resources to make sure that they contain information which is valuable and pertinent. This is especially true when the resources you retrieved are not collected by an academic library, but conveniently accessible through Internet search. Web resources need more careful thought to ensure their quality. Thus it is always a good practice to begin your search using our Library Catalogue and databases for more authoritative and reliable resources.
Evaluation Criteria
Accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency and coverage are the five basic criteria for evaluating information from any sources.
Questions to ask:
Accuracy
Is the information reliable?
Is the information error-free?
Is the information based on proven facts?
Can the information be verified against other reliable sources?
Authority
Who is the author?
Does he or she have the qualifications to speak/write on that topic?
Is the author affiliated with a reputable university or organization in this subject field?
Objectivity
What is the intended purpose of the information?
Is the information facts or opinions?
Is the information biased?
Currency
When was the information published?
Is the information current or out-dated?
Does currency matter in this topic?
Coverage
Does the information covered meet your information needs?
Does it provide basic or in depth coverage?
Source: http://libguides.library.cityu.edu.hk/content.php?pid=240744&sid=2049336
2/ A “citation” is a reference to a source. There are two types: in-text and bibliographic citations.
3/ “Hanging indent style” just means that you indent the second line of a citation. Most of the bibliographic citations on the Purdue OWL use this style and you can see examples of it there.
Hi Sarah-
I’ll echo your professor in saying that judging sources isn’t always black and white, so you’ll be relying on your own critical reading and sense of judgment in addition to general guidelines about bias/authorship/accuracy, etc.
You might also find that “reliable” means different things depending on how you’re working with information. If I need factual information, I would look to see how my sources gathered their information/data, but if I’m writing about how people react to something (a real-world situation, a work of art), I might be very interested in a range of different opinions or interpretations.
Making this all a little more complicated is the fact that sometimes even experts disagree about how information should be interpreted, and new research sometimes changes how we think about older information (which is why it’s often important to consider how recent an article is).
Evaluating information is a skill that will come more naturally as you practice, but if you are really stumped, you can always visit the library to consult with a librarian. Research projects are meant (in part) to help you start thinking about ways to evaluate information, so this is a good time to ask questions.
#1 I tend to use reliable websites and magazines so I know that their reputation is on the line.
#1 I tend to use reliable websites and magazines so I know that their reputation is on the line.
GA10
1) When writing a bibliography , why is the Turabian style not really being used as much as MLA or APA?
2) Is the MLA format better than the APA format?
3) Does the citations have to be in order the way you wrote the research paper?
Question 1/2:
You should always use the citation style that your professor specifies. If you don’t know which one to use, ask!
Neither style is “better”. Different citations styles tend to emphasize different aspects of a resource. Part of this is because scholars in different disciplines are interested in different kinds of literature, but it’s complicated. If you’re interested, this page gives a nice overview:
http://writing.yalecollege.yale.edu/advice-students/using-sources/principles-citing-sources/why-are-there-different-citation-styles
Question 3: Information about ordering your works cited page can be found in your handbook, but also here: http://www.iup.edu/page.aspx?id=62365
#3 When citing I always try to cite my sources in the order that they came in the essay. It helps the reader from being confused or misunderstood.
How do we properly cite a live interview that you had with someone?
When we cite a website we put the website in color correct?
When we cite an author from a book do we use just italics and label the authors name?