BooksLanguage
Arts Lesson 2
Structure of Informational Materials (Grades 9-12)
Instruction 2-2
Structure and Format of Functional Documents | Prepare Bibliography Reference Materials | Features and Rhetorical Devices of Public Documents
PREPARE BIBLIOGRAPHY REFERENCE MATERIALS
In our last Instruction, we discussed how important it is to begin an essay with a motivator -- a thought or statement which motivates the reader to read on. That motivator might be something that somebody else has said or written. For example, you might begin an essay on music and romance with this quote from Shakespeare, "If music be the food of love, play on." Or you might begin an essay on world peace with this phrase from a Beatles song, "All you need is love."
Too, you might want to support an argument in an essay or research paper with a quote from a well-known authority. That's fine. But if you do use the words or thoughts of someone else, you absolutely must let the reader know that you are doing so. If you don't, it's plagiarism, which is a fancy word for stealing. Plagiarism is a big "No No" in academic circles -- and if you do it, you could get a bad grade, fail your course or get kicked out of school.
So how do you avoid plagiarism? By telling your reader exactly where you got your information. There are specific ways to do that, depending on whether you mention your sources within your text, which is called In-text Citation, or at the end of it, which is called either Works Cited or Bibliography. Works Cited can include anything from comic books and songs to TV programs, while a Bibliography usually lists information quoted from books, encyclopedias, newspapers and magazine articles.
In-text Citation
Whenever you refer to a source within the body of your text, you must also include that source at the end of your paper. Let's say you are writing about whales and want to use material from a book written by a man named Greg Smith who saw some whales on June 15, 1960. When you refer to his entire book in your text (a "whole text citation"), you would write something like this:
Smith (1960) sighted whales on June 15, 1960.
Then, at the end of your paper -- in your Bibliography or Works Cited section -- you would give complete details of the book like this:
Smith, Greg. How I Saw the Whales. New York, NY: Harper-Collins, 1960.
We'll explain more when we get to Bibliography. But what if your source has more than one author? Here is how you would indicate that in the text:
Russell and Jackson (1969)
And how you'd show it in your Bibliography:
Russell, Ben and Harry Jackson. Modern Physics. Miami, FL: Lerner, 1969.
And if you're using a direct quote from Chapter 4 of a book written in the year 2000 by a woman named Johnson, you would show it in your text like this:
(Johnson, 2000, chap. 4)
Bibliography (Works Cited)
As we said earlier, the Bibliography or Works Cited list goes at the end of your essay or research paper and shows all the material you consulted while writing it. There are some definite rules about how you list these materials.
First of all, your Bibliography should be organized in alphabetical order by the author's last name. Or, if no authors are listed, by the first word of the title. It should be single-spaced with one space between the individual entries. Various types of entries have different formats. We'll show you some here and there are links to complete format guides at the end of this Instruction.
Books
For books, include the name of the author or authors; the title (underlined); where the book was published; the name of the publisher and the date it was copyrighted. Here are examples of how to list a book with one author and how to list a book with two authors:
Smith, Greg. How I Saw the Whales. New York, NY: Harper-Collins, 1960.
Russell, Ben and Harry Jackson. Modern Physics. Miami, FL: Lerner, 1969.
For sources other than books, you should include additional information as shown below.
Encyclopedia Article
For an article in an encyclopedia, list the author (if given); put quotes around the title of the article; underline the name of the encyclopedia and give the date of the edition from which you got your information.
Dickenson, Rob. "The Norman Conquest." World Book Encyclopedia. 1990 ed.
"Vietman." Compton's Encyclopedia. 1992 ed.
Magazine Article
For a magazine article, list the author; put quotes around the title of the article; underline the title of the magazine; indicate the issue in which it appeared and give the page number.
Heinrich, Bill. "Why is a Robin's Egg Blue?" Audubon. July 1998: pg 64
Newspaper Article
For a newspaper article, list the author (if given); put quotes around the title of the article; underline the name of the newspaper; indicate the date when it appeared and list the section and page number.
Kalette, Denise. "California Town Counts Down to Big Quake." USA Today 21 July 1986, sec. A 1.
Film, Filmstrip or Video
For a film, filmstrip or video, underline the title; list the producer;
indicate the date it was released and its length in hours and/or minutes.
The Grizzlies. Videotape. National Geographic Video, 1986. 60 mins.
Web Site
For a web site, put quotes around the name of the article; show complete URL address and give the date the material was placed online.
"Knighthood" URL: http://www.medievalword.org (5 December, 1994).
Interview
For an interview that you yourself conducted, give the name and title of the person or persons you interviewed and indicate where and when the interview took place.
Personal Interview with Eminem, singer. Nashville, Tenn., 11 Feb 2002.
For a complete guide on how to list sources, check out the web sites shown below. Remember that consistency of format is always important, especially in scientific papers. But -- most of all -- remember that how you list your sources is less important than that you do so. If you don't, it could have very serious consequences.
http://www.sandiaprep.org/library/bib/bib.html (How to Do a Bibliography)
http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/within.htm (Interactive. Site will answer questions about how to list sources).
Now let's do Practice Exercise 2-2 (top)
Next Page: Features and Rhetorical Devices of Public Documents (top)