There are Rules about Using the Information you Find
Information is published in highly structured ways such as a books or periodical articles and in less structured ways like web sites or images or even without a printed structure such as an interview or speech. Regardless of how the information is presented you must always give the author or creator credit for their work.

When a person produces evidence of intellectual property, whether it be a book, article, report, or even programming source code, that intellectual property is owned by the author. Copyrighting gives legal protection to those who create a work and gives them the sole right to reproduce or re-distribute their work.

If you reproduce significant portions of a published document that you intend to disseminate without asking for permission from the author, you are guilty of copyright infringement.

You give credit using a process called "Citing" where you list all the elements needed to give acknowledgment to the producer of that information and to locate the original source of the information. The result is a citation. One way of looking at it is to think of the citation as the address of the information source used.

Some Tips:

• Keep a record of all information sources that influenced your thoughts on your topic.

• Record and organize information as you conduct your search, rather than once you have finished.

• Know which elements of an information source are required for the citation style that you are using.

Citation Styles
There are elaborate sets of rules (called styles) governing which elements must be included in a citation. These rules (styles) specify exactly which elements must be included, the order they appear, the spacing between them, the capitalization and punctuation required.

Many of the major fields of knowledge (disciplines such as the humanities, social sciences, medicine and physical sciences) have their own style of bibliographic citation. The various organizations publish style guides (manuals) which are regularly updated ---so make sure you are using the current rules. You can purchase a style manual or you can use the books available in the Reference Area of the library. These web sites link to some of the organizations responsible for the most important styles.

Modern Language Association (MLA)	American Psychological Association (APA)
American Medical Association (AMA)	Council Of Biology Editors (CBE)

The two main styles used at the SRJC are the Modern Language Association (MLA) and the American Psychological Association (APA). Both styles have specific formats for citing references in your text as well as in your bibliography. The differences between these two styles are mainly in the punctuation. The most important thing is to follow a single style consistently. Always check with your instructor to be sure of which style they want you to use.

Citation Guides
Many academic libraries or institutions summarize the most important style manuals into easy to use guides for their students.

SRJC Libraries - How to Cite Information Resources - gives links to Guides for MLA & APA.

IMPORTANT!!!!! The Library Guide (MLA Style Sheet or APA Style Sheet) is used continuously in this course. Print a copy now for the style you will be using or you can pick up a free print copy at an SRJC Library !

Citing Basics

There are two basic features to citing :

1. Bibliography (List of Works Cited or References). The bibliograpy is an alphabetical listing of all the sources used. The bibliography occurs at the end of a paper.

2. Footnotes (Parenthetical References or In-Text References). Footnotes are used in the body of your paper and point to the source in the Bibliography for the fact, direct quote or paraphrase.

A traditional footnote is recorded at the bottom of the page or at the end of the paper.

A parenthetical reference or In-Text Reference is included in the text of the body of your paper directly /immediately following the referenced material (your paraphrase or quote).

More details on both of these in the Section Two.

Additional Resources

Research and Documentation Online by Diane Hacker
http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/

Color Coded Guide to Citation Styles by Robert Delaney http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citation.htm

Lesson 04 Quiz 01