ENGLISH I – UNIT 1: THE STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE
DOCUMENTATION

In high school you will be writing more reports or essays on topics related to your work, especially in Language Arts, Social Studies, and Bible. Many of these assignments require you to document your sources in two ways: a works cited page (bibliography) and parenthetical citation. What is this all about? Why do you have to do it? What happens if you don’t document your sources?

This lesson introduces a series of lessons that will teach you about the importance of documentation and the procedure for documenting sources. This material will not appear on your unit test; instead, assessment of the skills you learn will take place through the year as you actually document your sources in papers you write.

Let's begin by looking at the goals for this lesson and the terms you'll need to know.

Here are your goals for this lesson:

Know the vocabulary associated with source documentation Distinguish between common knowledge and facts that need documentation Define plagiarism and avoid it

Vocabulary cite to refer to a source as an authority direct quotation using the exact words of an author. Must always be put into quotation marks; must be cited in parentheses following the quote in the text; and must also be given an entry in the works cited page. documentation the acknowledgement of all outside sources researched and used in an assignment; citation MLA format the Modern Language Association style of citation for research sources, commonly used in schools and universities in the areas of language and the humanities paraphrase restating the author’s ideas in one's own words; much longer than a summary; must be documented parenthetical citation documentation placed in parentheses within the text of an assignment plagiarism the use of someone else's information, whether quoted directly, summarized or paraphrased, without permission or citation so that the information appears to belong to the person reporting it rather than to the actual owner source in research, all outside material used to research information for an assignment works cited page an alphabetical listing of all sources investigated and used to complete the project

Vocabulocity Flash Cards Spelling Bee

WHY IS DOCUMENTING A SOURCE IMPORTANT?

When writing anything that is not general knowledge or from your own experiences, using other sources is required. By giving credit to words or ideas of the original authors, your information increases in credibility. Experts in any field who support your thesis, whether it is racecar driving, farming, team coaching, or pastry baking, strengthen your paper's main idea.

Without trustworthy support, your paper will likely be viewed as inadequate or incomplete. If you are writing this paper for a teacher, it will earn a poor grade in the class. If you are writing this paper for another audience, such as your employer, a newspaper editor, a civic group, a scholarship committee, or a grants foundation, you will not convince the readers of the legitimacy of your point. You will not persuade anyone to believe your main idea.

A less common, but equally valid reason for crediting a source is that your information could be found to be incorrect. In this case documenting the source of that information puts the blame for its inaccuracy on your source and not on you, the writer of the paper.

Most importantly, giving credit to the original authors shows that you, the writer, know that these ideas and words are not your own. Citing each source is the path of honor. You have not attempted to copy or retype the information from another source and pretend that you yourself were its original author.
DOCUMENTATION TOOLS THAT HELP AVOID PLAGIARISM

These lessons will use the MLA format. Two other styles available are the American Psychiatric Association (APA) style and the Chicago style. Each has