Documentation

• Documentation


  The acknowledgement of all sources used within the body of your academic essay
• Documentation is an essential part of academic essays and it must be done by consulting multiple sources
• To have access to a lot of facts, illustrations and opinions on the topic you are writing about, you have to read extensively to get ample information on the topic or research area you are working on from different sources materials such as books, journals, newspapers, magazines, conference papers or proceedings, institutional or government publications, electronic sources, theses, reports or unpublished works
• You need to maintain proper records of all sources, in addition to where exactly each specific source was retrieved
• Documentation style


  The format of citing or referencing sources
• Effective documentation helps to distinguish our ideas and that of others which have influenced our paper as we duly give them credit
• What must be documented

  • Ideas
  • Illustrations
  • Opinions
  • Facts
  • Statistical information in the forms of graphs, tables, charts, diagrams, pictures, audio-visual materials and personal communication
• Opinions and facts that are common knowledge do not need to be documented
• Ways of including or integrating ideas or research materials from sources

  • Quoting directly
  • Summarizing
  • Paraphrasing
• Summary


  Outlining the main ideas or the most outstanding point(s) of the source(s) into your own words to support and substantiate your argument
• Paraphrase


  Restatement of the source or information in another form by using your own words without changing the original or intended meaning of the original writer
• Direct quotation


  Copying the exact words and punctuation of the source word for word, enclosed in quotation marks
• Signal phrases are used to introduce the summarised, paraphrased as well as quoted material in paper
• Signal phrases


  • According to...
  • ... exemplifies...
  • ... disputes the idea that...
• Direct quotation


  • "students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes and as a result they overuse quotations in final [academic] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted source. Therefore, they should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while consulting research materials"
• When to document


  • When you quote
  • When you paraphrase
  • When you summarise
• Why you need to document

  • To give credit to the ideas, words, opinions or facts of other authors or researchers
  • To strengthen and support your academic arguments or findings
  • To make your work more informative, as it traces the intellectual development of the ideas presented
  • To get recognition and authentication of your work as your readers would be convinced that your conclusions are based on experts in the field
  • To show your readers the source of your information and afford them the opportunity to consult your sources independently to verify your data
  • To make your work more academic
• Why do you have to acknowledge the sources cited in your academic writings

  • To avoid the charge of plagiarism
  • To fulfil a legal obligation in any event of copyright issue
  • To protect yourself in the case of questionable allegations
  • To show an ethical obligation when others are given the due credit for their work in your writing
• Documentation styles


  • American Psychological Association- APA style
  • America Chemical Society- ACS style
  • American Political Science Association - APSA style
  • Council of Science Editors-CSE style
  • Chicago Manual of Style - CMS style
  • Modern Language Association- MLA style
• APA style


  Uses parenthetical in-text citation with author's last name and year of publication, and a reference list with all cited sources in alphabetical order at the end
• ACS style


  Uses superscript numbers, italic numbers in parentheses, or author name and year of publication in parentheses for in-text citation, and a reference list in numerical or alphabetical order
• APSA style


  Uses author-date parenthetical citation within the text and a reference list at the end
• CSE style


  Has three documentation systems: Name-Year, Citation Sequence, and Citation Name
• CMS style


  Has two formats: Note bibliography (footnote/endnote system) and Parenthetical citation-reference list
• MLA style


  Uses in-text citation specifying the name of author and page(s), and a 'works cited' list of all cited documents in alphabetical order at the end