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The SLOTH Brief Guide to Integrating Outside Source Materials |
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Return to The SLOTH Guide to Documentation |
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The SLOTH Brief Guide to Integrating Outside Source Materials |
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Return to The SLOTH Guide to Documentation |
Please remember, you cannot do any research until you know what you are writing about. Once you know your topic and purpose, the CCSF Library's computerized reference system will be that much more helpful and easy to use. Basically, in order to find a book, you click on the computer screen symbol, or icon, that claims to lead you to CCSF's holdings. Once in there, you will be able to locate books according to subject, keyword, author, or title. Then you just go find it on the 3rd or 5th floor.
If you want to find a journal or magazine article through the computerized catalog, simply click on the symbol for "periodical databases." This will take you into the Infotrac system. Once in there, you will most likely use the "Expanded Academic" index, but you may also use the health or business indexes. As you will see, the computer catalog also has links to Newsbank and Ethnic Newswatch, both of which are very helpful resources.
But computers are not your only
entry way to outside sources. On the fourth floor you will also find
indexes--such as the San Francisco Chronicle Index and
the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature--which can
also fairly easily lead you to articles of interest. It is crucial
that you ask the librarians for help. It may also help you to know
that by using the bar code on your library card as a password, you
can use the
library's on-line "reference"
resources directly through their home page.
Integrating
Materials
(Return
to top of page)
You will be using Modern Language Association (MLA) style to accurately, stylishly, and honestly weave in writings and ideas that you are borrowing from outside sources. MLA style is a very simplistic system based on acknowledging authors and page numbers, much of which can be accomplished by using using parenthetical page citations and in-text citations. This is demonstrated quite well in a typical English 90 anthology such as Axelrod and Cooper's Reading Critically, Writing Well: A Reader and Guide (513-14). Unless it is awkward, the first time you use an outside source, you should mention the author's full name, something about them to establish their credibility (eg., profession, an accomplishment), and the page number where the words or idea that you've borrowed can be found. After that, last name only will suffice.
See the following examples:
According to sociology professor Amitai Etzioni, many of the jobs
available to teens "undermine school attendance and involvement, impart
few skills that will be useful later in life, and . . . skew the values
of teen-agers" (225).
In his 1986 essay "Working at Mcdonald's," sociologist Amitai Etzioni
makes several charged claims about the impact that certain jobs may
have on teenagers' ethics and educational priorities (225).
Unfortunately, as some sociological studies have shown, many fast food
jobs can "undermine school attendance and involvement, impart few
skills that will be useful later in life, and . . . skew the values of
teen-agers" (Etzioni 225).
Documenting Materials (Return to top of page)
The last page of your essay will be called the Works Cited page, so type Works Cited at the top-center. Your works will be listed alphabetically according to authors' last names. As shown in Reading Critically, Writing Well (Axelrod and Cooper 517-25), MLA requires slightly different ways to document souces depending on the type of source (eg., book, article, movie).Since Etzioni's work has been used, his essay must be documented. And since his essay is a work in an anthology, the following entry for it will be based on sample #14 in Axelrod and Cooper (519):
Etzioni, Amitai. "Working in McDonald's." Reading Critically, Writing
Well: A Reader and Guide. Ed. Rise B. Axelrod and Charles R.
Cooper. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999. 225-29.
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