Summary
Highlights
The video outlines three learning objectives: gathering and synthesizing information, familiarizing with citation styles, and writing citations correctly. It introduces the concept of a Review of Related Literature (RRL) as an overview of writings related to a specific topic.
Good research sources must be updated (preferably within the last 3-10 years), reliable, fair, objective, relevant to the topic, and provide accurate and sufficient information.
Primary sources are first-hand accounts or original data (e.g., journals, historical documents), while secondary sources are interpretations or analyses of primary sources by non-participants (e.g., encyclopedias, biographies).
Citing sources involves in-text citations and a referencing list to avoid plagiarism. In-text citations are snippets within the text, while a referencing list compiles all cited sources at the end of the paper.
The APA style requires the author's last name and publication year. For one author, it's (Author, Year). For two authors, use 'and' or '&' between names. For three to five authors, list all names initially, then use 'et al.' for subsequent citations. For six or more authors, use 'et al.' from the first citation.
When organizations are authors, cite their full name and year; use abbreviations if established. Indirect sources require citing the primary author, year, and page number. Electronic sources follow the author-date format. Websites with an author and year are cited using the author-date format. Websites without an author use the title, and if there's no year, use 'n.d.' (no date).
MLA is common in Liberal Arts and Humanities. It follows an author-page format, often appearing at the end of a statement with the author's last name and page number in parentheses, e.g., (Gray 50).
CMS offers two systems: Notes-Bibliography (for humanities like literature and history) and Author-Date. The Notes-Bibliography system uses footnotes or endnotes with full bibliographic information. An example is provided for one author in an in-text citation, referring to a detailed footnote.
The APA referencing list is at the end of the paper, containing all cited literature, arranged alphabetically by surname. It uses a hanging indentation, starts with the author's last name (initials for given names), and capitalizes the first word of the title.
The MLA format for books and journals is shown. For CMS, the referencing list (called bibliography) is arranged alphabetically by author's last name and includes information like author, title, city of publication, publisher, and year.
The video concludes with a learning task for viewers: to cite three different sources related to a chosen topic using APA, MLA, and CMS styles. The presenter thanks the audience and reiterates the importance of correct citation for research studies.