Citation Tools and Generators
I don't do windows, I don't do floors and I don't do bibliographies!
I have a very strong bias against the expectation that students will create bibliographies because I don't always understand the rationale behind this requirement. Bibliographies are simply a list of resources consulted or used in the process of research. They remain unconnected to the finished product. When asked teachers respond by saying that they require bibliographies to prevent plagairism. Hmmm... in my experience this has never worked.
I would like to say "ban bibliographies" much the same way Joyce Valenza says we should ban "topical research". However, that is not to say that I don't believe that students should be held accountable for the resources that they use to find information. But instead of the focus on bibliographies the focus should be on the citations that students use to support their point of view. This requires students to search for the experts and to find the best possible information. The Works Cited page (MLA) or the Reference page (APA) merely becomes the full documentation of the items they have cited within their product.
Why to cite: (posted in LM_Net)
To show that one did research
To defend one's work
To be able to return to the source(s)
To share sources with others
To get a better grade
To give credit to the source(s)
To avoid plagiarism
There are several good sites that provide teachers and students with background, overviews and tutorials on citing and proper formating for works cited and reference pages. One of the best is found at the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University. Students will find their formatting guides for both MLA and APA very user friendly and easily understood.
Citing your Sources: A Research Tutorial - a very well done powerpoint that demonstrates the two main citation formats, MLA and APA.
MLA (Modern Languages Association)
MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities. This resource, updated to reflect the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (6th ed.) and the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (2nd ed.), offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page.
MLA Formatting and Style Guide - this guide includes....
APA (American Psychological Association)
APA Formatting and Style Guide
APA is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences. This guide is revised according to the 5th edition of the APA manual and offers examples for the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the reference page.
Chicago Style
Citation Tools
As part of my Grad program I attended a University library workshop. I was totally thrilled with not only the overview the databases, but with the introduction to RefWorks. I am able to mark items during my search in the databases or in the card catalog and then later export to RefWorks, which creates a completely formatted and alphabetized reference page for me. Too Cool! There is even an accompanying program which I can use to
automatically insert the in-text citation into my paper. Wow! This makes me wonder about how extensively we need to teach students about the correct formatting of a bibliography page. Why not just use a citation generator - there are several available.
- Landmark Son of Citation Machine
- BibMe
- NoodleBib Express
- EasyBib
- OttoBib (books only)
- Zotero
Zotero is an easy-to-use yet powerful research tool that helps you gather, organize, and analyze sources (citations, full texts, web pages, images, and other objects), and lets you share the results of your research in a variety of ways. An extension to the popular open-source web browser Firefox, Zotero includes the best parts of older reference manager software (like EndNote)—the ability to store author, title, and publication fields and to export that information as formatted references—and the best parts of modern software and web applications (like iTunes and del.icio.us), such as the ability to interact, tag, and search in advanced ways.
Levels of Citation and Documentation for Elementary Students