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In
the state of nature, Hobbes considered "the life of man,
solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" (207).
Reference
Theories of the primitive state of nature abounded at this
time (Hobbes, 1651).
The question of when to refer and when to quote is one that
can only be answered within the context of the purpose of
your paper. If you are writing a literary analysis, direct
quotation of the text will allow you to perform a more specific,
concrete analysis. If you are writing a research project,
however, it is much more important that you refer to previous
research and provide summaries of findings.
Citing sources
The mechanics of citing sources will vary from style to style,
but there are two primary methods of giving citations: parenthetical
(in-text) references and notes. Although most documentation
styles provide guidelines for both in-text references and
notes, each is generally identified with one or the other.
Parenthetical references
Systems of parenthetical reference have become popular in
the past twenty years or so. Their greatest strength from
the standpoint of the reader is that they don't obligate the
reader to search for citations at the bottom of the page or
at the end of the document; all necessary information is located
in the text, immediately following the quotation or reference.
From the standpoint of the writer, parenthetical reference
styles are much easier than notes to format and keep track
of (although most word processors will handle this automatically).
Parenthetical references work in conjunction with the list
of sources that appears at the end of your document. That
is, the information that appears in parentheses after a quotation
or reference allows the reader to turn to the list of sources
and identify which one is being cited. Thus, if a particular
author has more than one entry in the list of sources, your
parenthetical reference must give enough information to allow
the reader to identify which work is being cited. This may
involve including the year of publication, or a shortened
version of the title, or both.
The information provided in the parenthetical reference varies
from style to style. Because the chronology of previous research
is important in evaluating its usefulness, the APA style requires
the date to be included with the author's name. Other styles,
such as the MLA style, require only the page number for quotations
(as long as there will be no confusion as to which work is
being cited).
Notes
The citation of materials in footnotes (appearing at the bottom
of the page) and endnotes (appearing at the end of the document,
usually beginning on a separate sheet) is a more traditional
method for identifying original sources. One advantage of
giving citations in notes is that the reader will not be interrupted
by sometimes lengthy references in the text. And now that
word processors are able to manage the formatting of notes
automatically, the writer no longer needs to set aside time
to adjust the spacing of every page to accommodate them.
Unlike the parenthetical-reference styles, note-based styles
do not require the appending of a list of sources. Instead,
complete bibliographic information is provided in the first
note that cites a work; subsequent notes referring to that
work will use a shortened version of the citation. Therefore,
the author need not worry about omitting any works from a
list of sources, or accidentally including any that aren't
actually referred to or quoted from.
The style established by the University of Chicago (commonly
referred to as the Chicago style) is the most commonly used
for notes, although the citation-sequence style adopted by
the Council of Biology Editors (CBE) and the Numbered References
style both call for citations to appear in notes.
Lists
of sources
As
mentioned in the section on parenthetical references above,
references in the text of a paper must work in conjunction
with an appended list of sources. Documentation styles have
different names for these lists; the MLA calls it "Works
Cited," while the APA designates it simply "References."
Each documentation style establishes strict rules for the
construction and formatting of the list of sources. In fact,
a large proportion of the manual for each style is devoted
to these rules and examples of them. The Writing Centre Web
pages provide the basic rules for each style, with examples
you can follow.
Paper formatting
Almost all of the documentation styles offer guidelines for
the appearance of your final draft. However, all of the style
guides defer to the requirements of the individual assignment.
Therefore, you should follow your course instructor's instructions
for preparing the final draft.
Page formatting
Most documentation styles call for a minimum of one inch of
space on all sides, and for all elements of your text to be
double-spaced. The appearance of certain elements, such as
page numbers, indented quotations, and title pages varies;
check with the documentation style you're using for specifics.
Headings
You may find that dividing a longer paper into sections with
headings helps you organize it more effectively. If this is
the case, you should find out if the documentation style you're
using establishes standards for their appearance. The APA
style's headings structure, for example, is quite detailed,
while the MLA style establishes no standard for headings.
Indexes and tables of contents
If your document is long enough to require an index or a table
of contents, you should check the style manual for the documentation
style you're using.
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