Study Tips

When I write an essay or longer work and do the research I always find interest of funny things and I think, “Man, I wish I had said that!” Usually it’s a quotation that is funny or smart and I want people to think I’m that clever. But taking credit for someone else’s words is neither funny nor smart so I always make sure to include a reference. A reference is an indication of where the quotation, statistic, fact or idea came from when it’s presented in your work. As you pursue your college degree, its import you know how to write a reference.

There are three types of references: Footnote, where the material is assigned a number by page which corresponds to an entry at the bottom of the page that tells the source, author, page number or URL. Endnote, where the material is assigned a number by chapter and the source information is compiled in a list on the back. Parenthetical, where the source author and page number is listed in parenthesis right after the source but the author is listed on the bibliography in the back. When you are earning your college degree these are the three major types you will use.

When doing your research make sure to scan the index or publishing copywriter information to make sure you have all that down, and be sure to write the page number of the source or exact title of the website page so it’s available when doing the writing. A good reference is one where the reader could find the exact quotation or idea but using your reference as a map. If they can’t come up with the source of your quotation, then the writing is not the appropriate level for a college degree.

Plagiarism is a serious academic crime and to be avoided at all costs. Even if you wish they were your words, make sure that the reader can tell if they’re not.

“Why do I have to study this stuff?” I would whine all the way through high school grammar. “I am never going to use it. When am I ever going to be referencing essays?” My teacher would just laugh and assign us five more questions. I never knew why she found that so funny until I started working on my college degree. Then it hit me. Not only did she know I was going to need this “stuff”, she also knew I was going to use it almost every day. Referencing, the art of showing where a quote or source material actually come from, is a part of almost every paper you will write pursuing your degree. Because so much of research and content are from online or printed essays, referencing them is an important thing to know.

What you have to remember about referencing essays is that an essay is a smaller work of non-fiction usually published as part of a whole work. When you are referencing essays you need to know the title and author of the essay, but also the title and author of the larger work that it come from. For example if I am quoting from an essay entitled, “Why Green Tomatoes Are Better for Frying”, I would cite the author of the essay, Joyce Lane, and then site the book, Southern Cooking for Beginners edited by Carole Klingman.

In the MLA (Modern Language Association) style of referencing which is used for degree essays involving humanities and liberal arts, essays are always given quotations and the book or resource is given italics or handled the way the larger resource should be handled. Working at the college level, you are actually citing a source within a source and the grammar rules for both types of sources must be applied.

Grammar can seem like a lot of rules all at the same time, however once you realize how important they will be to your daily life as you are earning your college degree you’ll discover the time you spend on the “stuff” will save you from whining far into your future.

It’s always the little things that get you. After waking up late I ran to school in the rain, raced up the stairs past friends and professors and dived in the classroom landing my wet-haired, panting self in my chair right as the bell rang for class to start. I thought I made the save of the day by not being late, until I realized my homework was still nice and dry, sitting on my desk at home. Little things. They can drive you crazy, but they matter. Even though the essays you write while earning your college degree may not seem like big works of literature, doing them correctly will make all the difference when the time comes to receive your grade. That’s why it’s so important to learn how to reference an essay.

Essays, though small, require the same amount of care and detail as a thesis or larger work. Your college professor will let you know whether your essay should be written in MLA (Modern Language Association), the way for humanities or APA (American Psychological Association), the method for sciences or by “Chicago Style” from the Chicago Manual of Style used mostly for larger scientific documents like books or dissertations. You will probably use all three styles while getting your college degree.

In MLA the books and resources you use will be listed on a back page called the “works cited” page. In your text you will list in parenthesis the author’s last name and the page number of the quote or material you used to support your documentation. In APA you may use footnotes or endnotes. You can also use a References page at the end where you list all the sources you cited in-text in alphabetical order by author. The standard for APA is usually footnotes unless the references are many. Chicago Style uses endnotes or parenthetical notation to show its sources.

It’s easy to think a little essay doesn’t require a lot of detail. But make sure you know how to reference an essay properly. Trust me; it’s the little things that always get you.

When I write an essay or paper, I want the professor to know exactly how much work I put into it. I don’t want them to think I sat down after a long night of watching TV, typed out the first thing that came to my head and finished twenty minutes before class, even if the paper is still warm from the printer when I hand it in. One way to show how much research you did on your paper, as well as provide authority to your statements and facts is to be sure to have a good bibliography attached to it. This reflects highly on your ability to sustain the kind of writing and research needed for a college degree. It’s important to know how to write a bibliography.

A bibliography is a list of all the resources you used in researching and preparing for your paper. When you are looking up facts and researching ideas for your paper, make sure the first thing you do is write down or copy the book, journal, or webpage URL that you used. Even if you don’t end up using a quotation from that source in your final draft of the paper, it was used in the creation of your work and that’s the purpose of the bibliography. In most college degree classes a bibliography will be expected as a part of your writing and research efforts.

The information to put in your bibliography includes the name of the book or resource, the author of the article, the date the book or resource was published and the publisher of the information. For websites, the full URL should be entered along with any author name and website publishing data available on the site. The bibliography is usually alphabetized by the author’s last name. This list goes a long way to add weight and respectability to the work you have completed and shows your professor you are writing at the level of someone worthy of a college degree. Make sure you and the authors, who made your paper possible, get all the credit they deserve.