Chapter 20 Summary

                 

                   In Chapter 20 of the Bedford Research we discuss how to understand the documentation systems. The first key question you should ask is "what is a documentation system and which one should I use?" There are four major styles to choose from, and they all have different documents they go with. MLA is the style from the Modern Language Association and is used primarily in the humanities, English, philosophy, linguistics, world languages, etc. APA is the style from the American Psychological Association and is used mainly for the social sciences, psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science, economics, education, etc. Chicago is the style developed by the University of Chicago Press. This style is used mainly in history, journalism, and the humanities. CSE is the style from the Council of Science Editors and is used mainly for the physical and life sciences such as chemistry, geology, biology, botany, and mathematics. This fields will guide your choice in documentation system. The next question you should ask is "How should I document my sources?" How you answer this question will depend on your  writing situation. Most often you will provide a reference to your source within text, and provide a complete set of citations, or formal acknowledgements, for your sources in a work cited or reference list. The specific format of your in-text citations will depend on the documentation system you use. Key publication information is usually provided in a works cited list, reference list, or bibliography. These list appear at the end of the document and include the following information about each source. Authors and editors, title, publication date, publisher and city of publication, periodical name, volume, issue, and page numbers, URL and access date.