ST.

THOMAS MORE COLLEGE – CLARK

 

Purposive Communication

DOCUMENTATI
ON Finals Week One

Prepared by:

MR. EUGENE S. PINEDA

Lecturer I
 In academic paper, documentation is
the evidence provided for information and
ideas borrowed from others. That evidence
includes both primary sources and secondary
sources.

There are numerous documentation styles

and formats, including MLA style (used for
research in the humanities), APA style
(psychology, sociology, education), Chicago
style (history), and ACS style (chemistry).
 Using sources in your research paper is an
important part of building and supporting your
argument. An essential part of the writing process
involves documenting your research and
acknowledging the ideas of others. When you
begin writing your paper keep these central points
in mind:

• Present rational arguments

• Organize your thoughts in a logical

progression

• Edit your work using .

• Make sure that you acknowledge the ideas,

quotations, or images that you find in other
electronic and print sources

This Compass Point focuses primarily on the

last point, the importance of citing all your
sources, and explains why citing sources properly
is necessary to promote ethical practices and
avoid plagiarism.
Acknowledge the Ideas of Others

It is crucial that you cite your sources and

acknowledge the ideas of others who have
influenced your thinking about your topic.
With the proliferation of full-text, online
resources, it is very easy to cut and paste text
and images into your own work. But you
should be aware of the ethical and legal issues
involved in using someone else's work without
proper attribution. If you are not cautious, you
may unwittingly plagiarize someone else's
ideas.
Intellectual Property

Honest and thorough citations are important for at least two

reasons:

First, the ideas and words of an author are

his/her intellectual property. Intellectual property, like any
kind of property, has a commercial value - so taking
someone's ideas or words as your own is a form of theft. If
you plagiarize, you could face disciplinary action from the
university or, if you continue these habits and publish
plagiarized work later in your life, you could face legal
consequences.
 Second, academic scholarship is a system in
which authors publish their opinions so that they
can be read by a community of scholars. These
scholars evaluate an author's arguments and
then write new works to support or refute what
they have read. Your work is also a part of this
system: your research and writings will become
available to the community, which will read them,
criticize them, and perhaps someday build upon
them. This is why it is so important for your
readers to be able to check your sources and fully
evaluate the strength of your arguments.
Students sometimes believe that they should
minimize their citations because they fear that
using too many sources will make their work
appear unoriginal. On the contrary, papers with
thorough and correct citations make your work
appear thoughtful and well-researched.
Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the failure to acknowledge ideas or

words that are not your own. You are plagiarizing if:

• You insert exact words or phrases from another

author's work into your own work.

• You use another author's ideas EVEN IF YOU PUT

THEM INTO YOUR OWN WORDS.

• You must be sure to differentiate your own

thoughts from those that you read in other
sources, and you must credit authors even if you
do not quote them directly.

Following is a set of examples showing common

mistakes that can help you recognize and avoid
plagiarism.
Rewording a sentence (paraphrasing)

This is one of the most common mistakes that

students make. You cannot simply reword a
sentence. For example, consider the following
sentence from Angelici (Synthesis and Technique in
Inorganic Chemistry, p 46):

"Those complexes that contain unpaired electrons

are attracted into a magnetic field and are said to
be paramagnetic, while those with no unpaired
electrons are repelled by such a field and are called
diamagnetic."
The following permutations are unacceptable changes
in wording:

• "Complexes that contain unpaired electrons are

those that are attracted to a magnetic field. These
are called paramagnetic, while those with no
unpaired electrons are repelled by a magnetic field
and are said to be diamagnetic.“

• "Those complexes that contain paired electrons are

repelled by a magnetic field and are said to be
diamagnetic, whereas those with no paired
electrons are attracted to such a field and are called
paramagnetic.“

• "Compounds that have unpaired electrons are

attracted to a magnetic field and are called
paramagnetic. Compounds with no unpaired
electrons are repelled by this field and are said to be
diamagnetic."
How to recognize unacceptable and acceptable
paraphrases

Here's the original text, from page 1 of Lizzie

Borden: A Case Book of Family and Crime in the
1890s by Joyce Williams et al.:

"The rise of industry, the growth of cities, and the

expansion of the population were the three great
developments of late nineteenth century American
history. As new, larger, steam-powered factories
became a feature of the American landscape in
the East, they transformed farm hands into
industrial laborers, and provided jobs for a rising
tide of immigrants. With industry came
urbanization the growth of large cities (like Fall
River, Massachusetts, where the Bordens lived)
which became the centers of production as well as
of commerce and trade."
Here's an unacceptable paraphrase that
is plagiarism:

The increase of industry, the growth of

cities, and the explosion of the population
were three large factors of nineteenth
century America. As steam-driven
companies became more visible in the
eastern part of the country, they changed
farm hands into factory workers and
provided jobs for the large wave of
immigrants. With industry came the growth
of large cities like Fall River where the
Bordens lived which turned into centers of
commerce and trade as well as production.
 What makes this passage plagiarism? The
preceding passage is considered plagiarism for
two reasons:

• The writer has only changed around a few

words and phrases, or changed the order of
the original's sentences.

• The writer has failed to cite a source for any

of the ideas or facts.
Cite Your Sources

You should cite all sources (both printed and

online) correctly and fully so that those who read
your work can find and refer to your citations. When
you are gathering sources for your topic, make sure
that you note the following information for your
citations:

Author
Title, subtitle
Editor (if any)
Edition
Volume
Place of publication (city or state name)
Publisher
Date of publication
Page numbers of article
For online resources, also add:
URL
Date of access
Webmaster (if given)
Database name (if given)
 What's a Bibliography?

A bibliography is a list of all of the

sources you have used (whether referenced or
not) in the process of researching your work.
In general, a bibliography should include:

• the authors' names

• the titles of the works

• the names and locations of the companies

that published your copies of the sources

• the dates your copies were published

• the page numbers of your sources (if they

are part of multi-source volumes)
Sample Bibliographies

Becsey, L., Wachsberger, P., Samuels, S., et al

(Directors). (2008). In the valley of Elah. [DVD]
Burbank, CA: Distributed by Warner Home
Video.

Ginsberg, J. P., Ayers, E., Burriss, L., & Powell, D.

A. (2008). Discriminative delay Pavlovian
eyeblink conditioning in veterans with and
without posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of
Anxiety Disorders, 22, 809-823.
doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2007.08.009

Glantz, A. (2009). The war comes home:

Washington's battle against America's veterans.
Berkeley: University of California Press.
Retrieved from the NetLibrary database.
Annotated Bibliography

An annotated bibliography is
the same as a bibliography with one
important difference: in an
annotated bibliography, the
bibliographic information is followed
by a brief description of the content,
quality, and usefulness of the
source.

An annotated bibliography is a
list of citations to books, articles,
and documents. Each citation is
followed by a brief (usually about
150 words) descriptive and
evaluative paragraph, the
annotation. The purpose of the
annotation is to inform the reader
of the relevance, accuracy, and
quality of the sources cited.
Sample Annotated Bibliography Entries

Waite, L. J., Goldschneider, F. K., & Witsberger, C. (1986).

Nonfamily living and the erosion of traditional family
orientations among young adults. American Sociological
Review, 51, 541-554.
The authors, researchers at the Rand Corporation and Brown
University, use data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of
Young Women and Young Men to test their hypothesis that
nonfamily living by young adults alters their attitudes, values,
plans, and expectations, moving them away from their belief
in traditional sex roles. They find their hypothesis strongly
supported in young females, while the effects were fewer in
studies of young males. Increasing the time away from
parents before marrying increased individualism, self-
sufficiency, and changes in attitudes about families. In
contrast, an earlier study by Williams cited below shows no
significant gender differences in sex role attitudes as a result
of nonfamily living.