Hello everybody!
In this post I want to talk with you about two different styles of citation: APA and MLA. I must admit I even didn't know that these styles existed! When I wrote my BA thesis I cited sources and wrote a bibliography, but I used what we can call a personal style. It was a way of citing I learned a coulpe of years ago. I was supposed to write an essay and we were told that it was a good way of citing sources, so I thought it would be good also for my BA thesis!
I didn't know two specific styles existed. I don't know if we have something similar for Italian but it seems to me that here in Italy we don't pay enough attention to the problem of plagiarism. APA and MLA styles are the answer to this matter: they tell you how to cite a source in a proper way, being it a in-text citation or a bibliography.
Even if they serve the same purpose they are a little bit different. Let's take, for example, the case of a reference list for some books. APA style suggests write the author's surname and then only the initial of the name. On the contrary, MLA style wants the surname followed by a comma and then by the complete author's name.
As far as the title of the book is concerned, if we decide to follow the APA style we should write the title in Italic while if we choose the MLA style our title will be underlined but not in Italic.
The two styles are also different for what the year of publication is concerned: according to APA, the year of publication should be written after the author's initial and divided from it by a comma. On the contrary, MLA puts the year at the very end of the citation.
If we want to cite an online resource the two styles suggest more or less the same technique, but MLA simply puts the retrieval date before the web address while APA specify ' retrieved .../.../....'.
I focused only on these two aspects of the two styles because these are the aspects that interest me more. Nevertheless, the two styles explain evey single aspect of citation; they give detailed instruction for every single situation of citation.
My style of citation for my BA thesis actually was a mixture of the two: I wrote the author's surname, then the initial of the name, then the book title in Italic and finally publisher, location and date. I thought it was a good style because it was complete and clear and I didn't find difficulties using it because it was pretty straightforward. Anyway, from now on I think I will use the MLA citation style because I like the emphasis on the book title and because I think is close to my 'personal' idea of citation so it will probably be more easy to use.
There's still a lot of work to be done!
See you soon!
Elisa
Hi Elisa!
RispondiEliminaI don't think that your 'personal' style was wrong. If as you said it was clear and straightforward, then it was ok. I have difficulties as well accepting that we have to follow these strict rules for citing. This is probably due to the fact that we are not used to it because each teacher we encountered in our student career told us something different about it. But now that we know something more about the matter we have no excuse and, as student of English, we should be more careful about the problem.
As for your your English style, I found your post 'readable', that is,well structured, logical, cohesive, clear, precise, concise and coherent. I noticed just a few mistakes:
- I must admit: we said in class we should avoid using it ;-)
- I even didn’t know: the correct form should be “I didn’t even know”
- APA specify ' retrieved .../.../....'. APA “specifies”.
Well, that's all for now.
See you in class!!
Francesca
Hi Elisa!
RispondiEliminaWell, I agree with you when you say that we don't pay anough attention to plagiarism and other unfair uses of online resources. Moreover, I think that the problem about citations, quotations, and writing a bibliography is about the way we respect intellectual property, and not only a "layout" problem. Infact, as you say we tend to use a "personal" style, and sometimes we forget to cite an author in a proper way. But I suppose that this is a common error! :-)
Talking about your English, there are some things I would like you to notice:
-"I must admit I even didn't know it", we said that "I must admit" is not correct ( it is not like the Italian "devo ammettere"), and then also " I even didn't know it" it is! :-) I think you should use "I didn't even know it", or simply "I didn't know it".
-"a way of citing", I would use "a citing style", because it is not really "a commonly used process" ( we don't cite often!), but simply a "style", a "manner" we apply when we need to cite.
-"I didn't know two specific stiles existed", I think the proper way is "I didn't know that there existed a specific style" and explain that there are two points of view about it.
-"APA suggests write", "to" is missing.
Ok I think it's all for now,
see you soon!
s.
Here it is http://myenglishspace-annaf.blogspot.com/
RispondiElimina