Future Undergrad Students     Future Graduate Students     Kids College     Career Enhancement     Academic Programs    
ISIDORE (Blackboard)      Giving to Marygrove      Alumni      About      Directory      Campus      News      Site Index
Stage 1 Guide to Academic Library Research

Stage 6: Presentation

Documentation
“Documentation” means the formal identification of the sources of information used in a research project. Different disciplines use different formats when presenting bibliographic information. 

Some commonly used manuals of documentation are:

  • The Modern Language Association Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 4th ed. (MLA), used mainly in the Liberal Arts and Humanities.  See the Marygrove MLA Quick Reference Guide.

  • The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th ed. (APA), used mainly in the Social Science.  See the Marygrove APA Quick Reference Guide.

Because the information needed to identify a book, chapter, reference article, journal article, etc. is complex, and because the examples given in any manual of style can never anticipate all the variations of information types that are found in the course of a research project, feel free to ask a librarian for assistance in documenting your sources accurately.

BackNext: Key Points