ENG233 – Advanced Composition

Lecture Notes (5) prepared by Dr P. C. Israel

Academic Writing: Documentation

In writing to the academic community, it is essential to provide sufficient

information about the sources of your evidence and ideas so your readers can
evaluate their reliability. Whether your beliefs are based on your own personal
experience, on interviews and observations in and outside of your environment,
or on results published in a major scientific journal, you must provide a complete
account of your source — who, what, where, when. If you are not citing opinions
or evidence supplied by recognized “experts” in the field, you need to carefully
establish other bases of credibility: personal character, validity of the survey
instrument, and so on.

What are Documentation Styles?

A documentation style is a standard approach to the citation of sources that the

author of a paper has consulted, abstracted, or quoted from. It prescribes methods
for citing references within the text, providing a list of works cited at the end of
the paper, and even formatting headings and margins.

Different academic disciplines use different documentation styles; your lecturer

may require you to use a particular style or may allow you use anyone of your
choice. Normally, every organization has their own house-style which everyone
who belong to that organization must use in any documents within that
organization.

Furthermore, documentation styles allow you to give credit for secondary sources
you have used in writing your paper. Citing sources not only gives credit where
it's due, it also allows your reader to locate the sources you have consulted. The
reader of your paper must be able to use the information you provide, both in the
text and in appended list(s) to duplicate the research you have done.

What Do You Need to Document?

In general, you must document information that originates in someone else's

work. All the following should be accompanied by a reference to the original:

• Direct quotations
• Paraphrases and summaries
• Information and ideas that are not common knowledge or are not available
in standard reference work
• Any borrowed material that might appear to be your own if there were no
citation

By now you're likely wondering, “Yes, but how do I know where the ideas of
others end and where my own begin?” If you’ve been writing papers that require
research, you probably may have been in the academia long enough to know that
the answer to such a question is not far fetch.

Giving credit where it’s due is a founding principle of academic inquiry, one that
fosters the free exchange of ideas. Ultimately, you'll need to decide for yourself
which ideas you can claim as your own and which should be attributed to others.
Perhaps we should consider how we'd like our work to be credited and use that
as our guide.

How Should You Gather Information for Documentation Sources?

You can make the process of applying any documentation style easier if you keep
good notes while you research.

Write down the most complete bibliographic information available for each
source that you consult; you may want to look at the sample references list for the
style you will be using to get an idea of the amount of detail that's required. If you
write out quotations or data from a source, be sure to note the number of the
page(s) on which the information appears in the original. Double-check the
quotation for accuracy before you return the source to the library.

It's a good idea to put citations into your paper as you draft it. When you quote,
put the source and page number directly after, perhaps marked with asterisks.
When you refer, do the same. And when you place a citation in your text, add the
source to your working bibliography.

When it comes to time to put the finishing touches on your paper, the information
you need will be available right in your text and may be easily put into the proper
format.

Documents: Which Style Should You Use?

Choose the appropriate documentation style suitable and acceptable to your

institution. Again, various disciplines also may have a particular style they use.

Documentation styles available include:

• The MLA – (Modern Language Association)

• The APA – (American Psychological Association)
• The Chicago/Turabian Style
• The American Political Science Association Style
• The Council of Science Editors Style

We are going to discuss the APA style of documentation here as it is the

acceptable style in UEW. You can also educate yourself on the others by
consulting textbooks or by visiting the internet.

The APA – (American Psychological Association)

The APA style of documentation is commonly used by writers in the social

sciences and education (economics, political science, psychology, sociology, and
anthropology), as well as in fields such as nursing. It is a parenthetical
documentation system; sources are cited in parentheses within your own
sentences to indicate you have used ideas, information, and quotations from an
outside source. The parenthetical information points to specific sources in an
alphabetized list of references at the end of your paper.

Below are vivid examples of the APA style:

BOOK

Kearns, K. (2025). Semantics (2nd ed.). Lagos: Ankors Press.

Lappin, S. (ed.). (2023). The handbook of contemporary language theory.

Blackwell.

Owusu, J. T. & Nnaka, F. D. (2024). Syntactic analysis. Vols 1&2. Accra: Hybride
Publications.

Riemer, N. (2010). How to do things with words. Cambridge: CUP.

Book Chapter, Essay or Article when the author is credited

Ananga, T. C. M. (2016). Basic English grammar in Language and Culture (pp.

203-221).
Igwilo, T. E. (2014). Morphology in English. International Journal of Language
and Literature: 43, 81-94.
Israel, P. C., Dumfeh, H. A., Amakyewa, J. O. & Bekoe, E. (2023). A semiotico-
pragmatic analysis of President Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo’s
address on Ghanaian economy. Advances in Social Sciences Research
Journal, 10(1). 81-102.

Book Chapter, Essay, or Article when no author is credited (online version)

Russians (2019). Worldmark encyclopedia of cultures and daily life. Retrieved

March 9, 2025 from Discovering Collection database.
Journal Article (from an online database)

Kavanagh, K. & Elendu, L. (2021). Connecting language and culture: A Fante

example. Retrieved December 26, 2021 from ProQuest/Language and
communication Journals database.

Journal Article (online, on a web site)

Outbreak news. (23 February, 2021). Weekly Epidemiological Record, 76, 57-64.
Retrieved February 28, 2001 from
http://www.who.int/wer/pdf/2001/wer7608.pdf

Newspaper Article (paper copy)

Padline, H. (6 April, 2022). The impact of Galamsey in southern Ghana. The

Daily Graphic p. 11.

Pamphlet/Brochure (Cite like a book but add [Brochure] as shown)

Research and training centre on independent living. (2022). Guidelines for

reporting and writing about people with disabilities (4th ed.) [Brochure].
Lawrence, KS: Author.

Interviews, E-Mails, Phone Conversations etc.

Because they do not provide recoverable data, personal communications are not
included in the reference list. Cite personal communications in text only. Give
the initials as well as the surname of the communicator and provide as exact a
date as possible. Example: Owusu, A. L. (personal communication, 16 April,
2022).

Presentations, Speeches, Posters etc.

Like the example above, if no “recoverable data” is provided, these would not be
included in the reference list and would be cited in the text only. If, however,
something tangible exists, for example: handouts of PowerPoint slides, lecture
notes, an abstract in a conference program, it might be citable. Here is an example
of a poster:
Worral, P. S. & Levin, R. (2021, 5 June). Developing a statewide research
agenda. Poster session presented at the biannual meeting of the Nigerian
Association of English Studies, Lagos, Nigeria.

Twohy, K. (2021, 13 October). Testimony given at Health, Human Services and

Covid19 Management Seminar, Accra, Ghana.

Important Notes

(a). Using italics, as in the examples above but underlining is still acceptable
when using the pen to write.

(b). Italicize book titles, journals and journal titles.

(c). Write the surname of the authors’/editors’ first, followed by the initials of
the first (and middle) names, leave a space between initials (e.g. Asare, J. K., not
J.K.), and link multiple names with an ampersand (&).

(d). If no author is given, start with the title of the work and then the date.

(e). Use “et al” in place of the additional authors when there are more than two
authors in the body of the text and list all the names at the reference section.

(f). Journal articles: If each issue of the periodical begins with page one, include
the issue number after the volume number as shown in the examples. If the page
numbering continues from issue to issue, do not include the issue number.

(g). Websites: If the date the page was created (or updated) is not given, put "n.d."
(no date) in the citation in place of the date. (This is not to be confused with the
date you retrieved it.)

(h). For articles retrieved in full text from a database, you don't need the web
address (URL), just the full name of the database.

(i). When typing your Reference List, double space between each citation.
(j). References should always be accurate, allowing your readers to trace the
sources of information you have used. The best way to make sure you reference
accurately is to keep a record of all the sources you used when reading and
researching for an assignment.

Importance of Referencing

1. Citations are used to avoid plagiarism.

2. Referencing allows you to acknowledge the contribution of other writers and

researcher in your work. Any university assignments that draw on the ideas,
words or research of other writers must contain citations.

3. Referencing is also a way to give credit to the writers from whom you have
borrowed words and ideas. By citing the work of a particular scholar, you
acknowledge and respect the intellectual property rights of that researcher. As a
student, you can draw on any of the millions of ideas, insights and arguments
published by other writers, many of whom have spent years researching and
writing. All you need to do is acknowledge their contributions to your
assignment.

4. Referencing is a way to provide evidence to support the assertions and claims

in your own assignments. By citing experts in your field, you are showing your
reader that you are aware of the field in which you are operating in.

5. Citations also make your writing more persuasive.