MLA and APA are two styles used (I suppose most in the US) for referencing, both for in-text citations and for the Works Cited List, i.e. the bibliography.
I haven't found many differences between the two; the APA requires the date of publication for all in-text citations, while the MLA doesn't. I found the APA website much clearer than the other one. For example because there was a division between the different cases of in-text citation: summary, paraphrase, direct quotation of short or long passages. Both styles require to provide the number of pages if you are not citing a whole work or the main idea of an author, but a specific passage of a work.
As for the bilbliographic referencing, the two styles slightly differ in punctuation, capital letters and other minor elements. However, in both the essential information is: name of the author, publication year, title of the article, title of the journal, volume number, pages.
It is interesting and useful to see how both websites dedicate a careful analysis of the different kind of sources that you may have to cite in an essay, including all sorts of online sources.
As for my BA thesis, I followed the instructions of my professor. I always had to provide the author's surname, the date of publication and the page:
Little (2006:167) identifies three reasons why...
In this perspective, when writing down his/her reflections (...) and reviews it in the freedom of not having to act on it in real time (Raya 2006: 131)
As Kohonen (2000:9) points out, “direct quotation."
the bibliographic reference was a mix of the two styles:
Little, D. (2006). “the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Content, purpose, origin, reception and impact”. Language Teaching 39, 167-190
I can conclude by saying that even though I find referencing annoying, it is a convention matter linked to IPR respect. The best thing to avoid freaking out when writing our eferencing is to choose since the beginning of our research a certain style to follow, and to bear in mind what its rules are.
Well, see you on Wednesday!
Francesca
14 anni fa
Hi Francesca,
RispondiEliminahow are you?
First of all thank you for your comments on my blog!
As far as your post is concerned, I agree with you when you say that the APA website was clear and detailed. I found it very useful and easy to read. Nevertheless, I think I will use the MLA style because I think it is similar to my personal 'idea' of a citation.
I'm still wondering why we don't have this attention to the problem of plagiarism and so to the aspect of citations. As you say it is a little bit annoying, but it is important as it is related to IPR respect.
Finally, I think your English is clear and your post is well structured, but I noticed a couple of things:
* 'Much clearer': I think you should write 'much more clear' or 'clearer than;
* 'For example because there was a...': I think this can be considered a sentence fragment. I think you can correct it by eliminating 'because' and putting a colon after 'one': '... than the other one: for example, there was a division between the different cases...(summary, paraphrase...).'
I don't know if it's clear and if it correct, but I'm pretty sure this is a case of sentence fragment! :-D
* 'Both styles require...if you are not citing...,but a specific passage...': I think this sentence is difficult to understand... It is not very clear what you want to say, but I think it can simply be a problem of punctuation.
* 'careful analysis of...': I think it is 'a careful analysis to...', but actually I'm not an expert in prepositions :-D
Ok, I think that's all! Keep up the good work!
See you soon in class!
Elisa
HI!
RispondiEliminaYes referencing, citing and also doing long lists is a quite annoying thing! ;-) But we have to do it if we want to protect our work, and also respect its resources. And, in this post you underline the problem about finding a proper "style" that should be clear, but also personal. I agree with you, and think that it is good to follow the proper guide, but we must try to be specific and personal too!
As for your English, there are a few things I would like to talk about (hope you won't mind it!):
-"much clearer", you should use "much more clear", or "clearer then", or "more clear then"
-"require", can be replaced with "ask", "need", and also "provide" can be substituted by "write", "cite", "state", "list". I think that "provide" means more "offrire", "fornire" in an active way, not in a text.
-"I can conclude" means you could also conclude in another way....I think you mean "Posso concludere dicendo che..." but here the "posso" means something like "now that I'm done, I can end", not really "I can say this intead of that". Maybe you should use "Concluding, I can say that"...
-"convention matter", maybe you mean "conventional"
The post is well built and folllows a certain coherence, but maybe you should pay attention at overlapping too many concepts.
Ok, see you soon!
s.