The Qasim piece uses MLA documentation style and we see that, too, in the works cited page.

Like we talked about in class on 4/12 and also in Learning Module 8, learning a documentation style is just learning how to look up information for how to format something according to conventions of the documentation style.

While not nearly as important as doing the synthesis work on the last page, readers will come to expect you to follow conventions of a documentation style for in-text citations (e.g., putting the citation in correct spot in sentence) and for the reference list (e.g., formatting a reference entry item in right spot and in right format in reference list).

Formatting the Page

You’ll notice that there is a sort of indent after first line of each entry in Qasim’s works cited page. In Google Docs or Microsoft Word, the easiest way to do that is to use the ruler function. See picture below to see what it looks like in Google Docs:

In this image above, the blue marks are what to pay attention to.  The triangle on the bottom need to be moved to the half-inch mark to represent a five-space indent. You get that set up, and all your reference list after that will follow the format text after first line of an entry being indented five spaces.

There are other formatting things to consider with reference list formatting. Depending on the documentation style, you can find the rules at the UW-Madison website on documentation style conventions.

Formatting the Entries

In the reference list by Qasim (or, in MLA terms, the works cited page), there are two different kinds of sources that you will likely use in your research writing, as well:

• academic journal articles
• newspaper/website articles

You might also use a few others that are important, like books or reports published by organizations, which will require looking up how to cite via the UW-Madison page or anther online resource that gives explanations and examples for conventions of making a reference list.

Looking over Qasim’s works cited page, you should get a sense of the differences between formatting a works cited entry in MLA. Translating these entries into another documentation style will also help you get acquainted with this format.

Task

Do one of the following:

• If you prefer to get practice with Chicago, CSE, or IEEE, choose one of the works cited entries from Qasim’s essay and translate it into your preferred documentation style among Chicago, CSE, or IEEE.
• If you are using APA or MLA for your research writing project, choose one of the works cited entries from Qasim’s essay and translate it into APA.

IMPORTANT: Try not to reuse a source in a specific documentation style that someone else already used! There are 13 entries and 5 documentation style options, so this should work out alright. If it doesn’t, still try to challenge yourself to get some practice by not looking.

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