Blog Post #7

While reading this chapter I began to learn more about MLA formatting which is essential while writing my Research Proposal and Research Paper. I learned from this chapter that documenting a source isn’t just about providing context for our claims, but it’s also about showing how the source material relates to other resources. Much like in the chapter, when I write a paper that needs work cited, I paraphrase, quote, and summarize. When citing using these different forms, it is essential to always mention the author or source it is coming from. While citing during the informational text is important, it is also necessary to provide a bibliography organized with all the sources in MLA format. While there are technological sites that can make a citation for you, this chapter step by step introduces how to manually create one. When summarizing information, it is key to condense the information while when a writer quotes, it should provide the exact message from the source. When I am quoting an author, I often find myself splitting up the quote if it is too long. Rather than summarizing, this gives a condensed form of the authors exact message which can essentially depict the same message to the reader if done properly. It is often that students in text cite incorrectly. After a quote or summary, parenthesis should surround the authors last name and page number followed by a period: (Shapiro 1). After reading this chapter I learned more about MLA formatting and APA.