Citations

Uh...I was reading some papers this week and found a strong tendancy to ignore in-text citations and failure to assemble correct documentation of "Works Cited". I think we all want to read about ideas, and there have been some really interesting papers so far, but I'm concerned that it seems that quite a few people need to know more about when and how to cite sources.

The faculty has agreed that we will use Diana Hacker's book, A Writer's Reference, as our standard writing text book. You should have a copy. It doesn't cost much. Much of it is available on-line, and there is a link on the sidebar of the blog. Papers for this class are written in MLA format, which is exhuastively detailed on pp. 329-377.

I now consider everyone officially notified about standards for documentation. As far as grading policy goes, you cannot score above a B if you don't properly cite and integrate sources. It's a skill you'll need to have when you do your thesis; you'll need it if ever you present a paper at CAA (which many expressed interest in doing).

If there are persistant problems with this material, (or if you've simply never been introduced to it before), I can suggest some of the helpful on-line exercises that teach what kind of information needs to be cited and how it should be recorded. You can contact me by email if you're hopelessly in the dark about this, or I'll assign exercises based on how your papers look.