citing.

1. The Rhetorical Purpose
for Citing Sources in
Technical Writing

2. What Do Citations DO?
• Place research within the context of other work on the subject.
Answers the question: what is your research adding to this body of knowledge?
• Acknowledge conflicts with other research findings.
Answers the question: why is your research challenging the findings of others?
• Provide support for critically important claims based on the evidence of others.
Answers the question: where is the evidentiary support for this claim?
• Directs reader to bibliographical information.
• Helps readers discern what weight to give the evidence.

3. Documentation styles: discipline-, company-,
organization-, publication-, and can even be
culturally specific.

4. Direct or Indirect?
Direct citation. Author (and/or work) is identified
directly and cited by parenthetical reference or
through a footnote or endnote.
Indirect citation. Author (and/or work) is not
identified but cited parenthetically or through a
footnote or endnote.
HOW TO CHOOSE…?

5. Example: Two Styles of Direct Citation
• APA [emphasis on date]
Brie (1988) showed that the moon is made of cheese.
Cheddar (1990) reached the same conclusion.
• MLA [emphasis on page number]
Brie showed that the moon is made of cheese (111-19).
Cheddar reached the same conclusion (40-52).

6. Example of Three Documentation Styles that
Use Endnotes
• Chicago [superscript number placed at the end of sentence.]
– Brie showed that the moon is made of cheese.¹ Cheddar reached the
same conclusion.²
• CBE [superscript number placed closed to author’s name]
– Brie¹ showed the moon is made of cheese. Cheddar² reached the
same conclusion.
• IEEE [uses brackets around superscript number placed close
to author’s name or reference to research]
– Brie[¹] Brie showed that the moon is made of cheese. Cheddar[²]
reached the same conclusion.

7. All Documentation Styles…
• In-text citation information (parenthetical or superscript)
must be accompanied by a corresponding entry in a Works
Cited, References List, or Bibliography where information
about the source is provided.
• Basic elements of a bibliography (any documentation style):
– Name of author
– Name of text
– Date of text
– Publisher of text

8. For Citation Help
The Writing Center at Colorado State is a useful
resource for understanding documentation
styles.
http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/researchsources/documentation/specific.cfm
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