Documentation
Documentation
Documentation means giving credit to the sources of your information. When you present information IN ANY FORM -- paper, speech, PowerPoint -- ANYTHING -- you must document your sources. Failure to do so is PLAGIARISM -- passing off someone else's work as your own. In school, plagiarism leads to -- at the least -- a grade of zero on the assignment. In college, plagiarism can lead to expulsion. In the "real world," plagiarism can end a career.
Your use of sources is also a way of demonstrating your understanding and in-depth knowledge of a topic -- showing you know what information is available on your topic, what is the most accurate and in-depth, and where to find that information. Your sources are a crucial part of your ARGUMENT -- "I argue such-and-such, because these are the facts, and I can prove these are the facts, because I got them from this reliable source."
When you cite a source, you are bolstering your argument by empowering your reader to go directly to the source of your information.
How do I credit my sources?
The method of giving credit to sources of information for a paper or other form of presentation in an academic setting is called CITATION. There are different formats for citing sources. At Queensbury, unless a teacher specifically tells you otherwise, always use the MLA (Modern Language Association) documentation style.
Back to TopThe two parts to proper citation under the MLA style:
PARENTHETICAL REFERENCES are short notes in parentheses within the body of your paper, identifying the author and page where you found a particular piece of information. EVERY FACT OR IDEA (including images) in your paper that comes from a source other than you and is not common knowledge, must be credited the source in a parenthetical note. (If you don't know whether a fact is "common knowledge," assume it is not.) You must cite both DIRECT QUOTATIONS and all FACTS OR IDEAS YOU HAVE RESTATED IN YOUR OWN WORDS.
A WORKS CITED LIST is a list IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER BY AUTHOR'S LAST NAME of all the sources you have cited in the body of your paper. It is NOT a list of every book or web site you have read or consulted while doing research.
An entry on the Works Cited page is designed to give the reader all the information needed, in a standardized format, to find the original source itself and verify your claims.
There are a few "Core Elements" which every Works Cited entry should provide, if at all possible. If you keep these basic elements in mind, writing a works-cited entry is relatively straightforward.
1. AUTHOR.
The person or persons responsible for creating the source -- the writer, artist, etc. It may be a corporate entity, e.g., the United Nations. Occasionally, you can find no attributed author.2. TITLE OF SOURCE.
If the source has no title, give a description of it, e.g., "Picture of a Cockroach Eating a Ham Sandwich." Titles of self-contained works (e.g., a book, a painting, a film) go in italics. Smaller works that are part of a larger work (e.g., a story in an anthology) go in quotation marks.3. TITLE OF CONTAINER,
Often your specific source is part of a larger collection, e.g., an article in a magazine, a poem in an anthology, a page of a web site. This larger collection is called the "container." Often the container is itself found in another, larger container, e.g., an article in a magazine you found on a database, a poem in anthology you accessed through Google Books. You list every level of containers you have used to access your source.4. OTHER CONTRIBUTORS,
Many sources are created by different performing different functions, e.g., an article or poem may be in a book or on a web site compiled by an editor.5. VERSION,
Often there are different versions of a source, e.g., books are published in different edition, movies are released in a "director's cut."6. NUMBER,
A source may be part of a larger sequence, e.g., a volume of a set of books, the issue number of a journal or comic book.7. PUBLISHER,
The organization that pays for making the source available to the public, e.g., a book publisher, a company funding a web site.8. PUBLICATION DATE,
The date when the source became available to the public, e.g., copyright date, online publication date. It may be a specific date, a year, or even a period of years.9. LOCATION.
Where you found the source, and where your reader can find it, e.g., the page number of a book, the url of a web site.10. DATE OF ACCESS.
While not a requirement for MLA style citation, often a teacher will also require a Date of Access for online sources. IB assignments always require a Date of Access.You will not find every element for every source. If an element is unavailable or irrelevant, go on to the next element. (E.g., A brief article in a newspaper or on a web site may not give an attributed author. Often there is only one version of a source. If a source is not part of a larger series, there will be no number.)
However, try to find as many of the elements as possible. If you cannot find many of these elements, it is probably not a reliable source, and you should look for another source.
Back to TopOne author
Whiplash, Snidely. Dudley Do-Right: The Untold Story. Penguin, 1928.
Two authors
May, George and Paul Warner. Civil War Generals. World Book, 2002.
Three or more authors
Pickle, Peregrine, et al. Condiments of the World. Oxford University Press, 2002.
Corporate (a group) author
Society of Effective Teachers. Making Students Miserable. QHS Press, 2001.
Article in a multivolume work
Spurius, Septimius. "The Nature of Nothing." Five Volumes on Nothing, edited by Nemo Nihil, 3rd ed., vol. 2., Nonesuch Press, 1722.
E-Book Version
Hound, Huckleberry. Treatise on Dialectical Materialism. E-book ed., Hanna-Barberra Press, 1962.
Introduction, Preface, et.
Helms, Jesse. Introduction. The Black Panther Anthology. Nonesuch Press, 1844.
Magazine
Snowman, Frosty. "Global Warming: A Personal View." Arctic Life, 24 Jan. 1995, pp. 20-26.
"Reindeer Gone Wild: Spring Break." North Pole Weekly, Dec. 2005, pp. 40-50.
Newspaper
Toad, Bob. "Poet Eats Toad." Amphibious Gazette, 23 Dec. 1998, p. B3.
"Librarian Loses Mind." Bibliographic Times, 4 April 2005, p. A1.
Academic journal
Tiddlywink, Dudley. "Cross-Section of Diaphanous Conglomerate: Gibberish?" Journal of Preposterous Sociological Experiments, vol. 499, no. 2, 1997, pp. 222-225.
Back to TopContent from Outside Source Accessed through a Database
Wagoner, David. “Eating a Toad.” Agni, no. 57, 2003, pp. 62–63. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23009788. Accessed 21 December 2020.
Lowe, Winsor H., and Mark A. McPeek. "Is Dispersal Neutral?" Trends in Ecology and Evolution, vol. 29, no. 8, Aug. 2014, pp. 444-450. ScienceDirect, dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2014.05.009. Accessed 21 December 2020.
Content Produced by a Database
Augee, Michael L. "Platypus." World Book Advanced, World Book, 2016. www.worldbookonline.com/advanced/article?id=ar434520. Accessed 21 December 2020.
"Abbie Hoffman." World History: The Modern Era, ABC-CLIO, 2016, worldhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/314787. Accessed 21 December 2020.
Back to Top(Note: Citing information from a web site can be tricky. Some elements take some digging around to find. If some are not available or don't apply, skip them. However, be suspicious when you can't find out where information is coming from. When in doubt about how to cite a web site, ask your teacher or a wise librarian.)
From a Web Site
Campbell, Donna. "1820-1829." Brief Timeline of American Literature and Events, Washington State University, 4 June 2013. public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/1820.htm. Accessed 21 December 2020.
"Never-Never-Never Land." The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, 10 February 2015. www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/nevernever.html. Accessed 21 December 2020.
"Beetle Boost for Bush and Friends." BBC News, BBC, 14 April 2005. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4443263.stm. Accessed 21 December 2020.
Smith, Sam. "Sparrows Attacking a Mountain Lion." YouTube, uploaded by Ima Hogg, 15 May 2001. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntrlythratl. Accessed 21 December 2020.
Back to TopSnead, Sam. Photo of Mr. Tenner playing soccer with the Dalai Llama. Instagram, 6 June 1911, www.instagram.com/p/Oj_IjIJgnIw/. Accessed 21 December 2020.
Jo [@ueiaa]. "I c u watching." TikTok, 2011, www.tiktok.com/@ueiaa/video/5764940059466976615. Accessed 21 December 2020.
(Note: Often it is impossible to get all the information for an image. A photograph from a database or a web site may not have a title or photographer listed. If there is not title, just make up a descriptive title. e.g.: "Winston Churchill holding a duck." Most of the time you will be getting your image from a book, a database, or a web site. Make sure you cite these just as you would for a print article.)
Van Gogh, Vincent. Cockroach Eating a Ham Sandwich. 1974, oil on canvas, Museum of Nonexistent Art, New York.
Burns, George. English Teacher Juggling Calico Cats. 1924. Queensbury High School, www.queensburyschool.org/notreallythere. Accessed 21 December 2020.
Digital reproduction of Edvard Munch's Hello Kitty in Torment. "Paintings I Wish I Could See," by Kerri Bundy, 28 July 2020. Online Journal of the Dark Arts, ojda.com/paintings-wish/. Accessed 8 November 2021.
Government Documents
United States, Congress, House, Permanent Select Committee on Selecting Select Committees. Select Committees: The Selection Process. Government Printing Office, 2005. 108th Congress, 1st session, House Report 555.
Great Britain, Ministry of Silly Walks. The Next Step in British Walking. Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1974.
United Nations. Report on False U.N. Reports. Taylor and Francis, 2011.
Decline in Habitat of the Adirondack Snow Monkey. Commission on Non-Existent Fauna, New York State, 2003.
Other Organizations
American Association of Assorted Associations. Forming an Association. Random House, 1998.
Report on the Failure of High School Students to Cite Properly. National Institute for Research into the Breathtakingly Obvious, 2000.
(Note: Which contributors to a film or TV show you list may depend your purpose in citing the work -- is your primary focus on an actor? a director?)
Barney Fights Godzilla. Directed by Zorban Smith, performances by Peter O'Toole, Lucille Ball, and Lassie, United Artists, 1722.
How Aliens Built the Pyramids. Documentary Films for the Gullible, 2015.
Smith, Sam. "Sparrows Attacking a Mountain Lion." YouTube, uploaded by Ima Hogg, 15 May 2001. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntrlythratl.
Back to Top"Interview with Daffy Duck." 60 Minutes. CBS, WRGB, Schenectady, 25 Dec. 1826.
"Iggy Pop Conducts Mahler." Performance Today. NPR, WKKE, Kalamazoo, 5 May 1970.
Back to Top(Note: You must cite AI-generated materials in the same way you would those in any other format, using the MLA template of core elements -- title, container, etc.. Since there is no real "author" to AI-generated material, begin with your prompt as the title, then use the name of the AI tool as the container, then give the version of the tool, the company name as publisher, the date you accessed the material, and the url.
Remember that an AI tool like ChatGPT usually is not a source, but accesses sources to generate a response -- just as a search engine finds sources. You can use AI to find sources, but be careful to evaluate those sources just as you would any others.)
"What was Timur the Great's impact on Russia?" prompt. ChatGPT, 3 Aug. version, OpenAI, 5 Sept. 2023, chat.openai.com.
"What was Timur the Great's impact on Russia?" follow-up prompt to list sources. ChatGPT, 3 Aug. version, OpenAI, 5 Sept. 2023, chat.openai.com.
"How do quarks and hadrons interact?" prompt. Bing, Sept. 2023, Microsoft, 5 Sept. 2023, www.bing.com.
Remember: Parenthetical references refer the reader to the complete reference on the Works Cited Page. You always need a complete Works Cited Page!
In parenthetical references, you give the LAST NAME of the author and the PAGE NUMBER on which you got the information. If you mention the author's name in the sentence, give only the page number. If there is no page number (for instance, for a web page) just list the name. If no author listed, use the TITLE that begins the entry on the Works Cited Page. If the title is too long, you may shorten it (so long as the reader can figure out which source you're citing). The parenthetical reference is placed at the end of the sentence.
One author
In quantitative terms, the first two Soviet Five-Year Plans were quite successful (Adams 95).
Adams comments on the quantitative success of the first two Soviet Five-Year Plans (95).
Two authors
Tichophobia and chetophobia are terms for the fear of hair (Doctor and Kahn 259).
Doctor and Kahn define tichophobia and chetophobia as the fear of hair (259).
Three or more authors
Henry Hudson's crew mutinied in 1610 in Hudson Bay (Berkin et al. 109).
No author listed
Attila the Hun held few televised press conferences ("Statesman's Yearbook").
The king is a fink ("World Almanac").
Indirect source
When his rebellious crew set him adrift in a boat, Henry Hudson reportedly remarked, "I knew I should have taken that left turn in Albuquerque!" (qtd. in Burns 378).
Back to TopMLA Works Cited: A Quick Guide
From the MLA Style Center.Research and documentation help from the Online Writing Lab from Purdue University."A free service that helps you build a bibliography instantly from any computer or device, without creating an account or installing any software. It’s brought to you by the team behind Zotero, the powerful open-source research tool recommended by thousands of universities worldwide, so you can trust it to help you seamlessly add sources and produce perfect bibliographies."MLA Citation Guide: Government and Legal Documents
From the University of Portland..Sample MLA Annotated Bibliography
Back to TopThese guidelines are taken directly from the MLA Handbook, Ninth Edition.