4.0 Introduction

{1} Having collected several credible sources, Val now faces the challenge of organizing their material.  Developing that material comes next, but before development takes place, it’s a good idea for Val to take the time now to work on documenting all of their notes, from simple jottings through summaries and paraphrases.  Taking careful notes that clearly indicate the origin of source material will save time later.  Moreover, carefully documented notes not only ensure that source material is cited correctly, but also prevent the mishandling of research materials, such as accidentally failing to cite something.

{2} Val has some experience with documenting sources.  In high school, they had to use the American Psychological Association (APA) citation style for assignments in their social sciences classes and the Modern Language Association (MLA) citation style in their English classes.  As an engineering technician or technologist student at Niagara College, Val is expected to use the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) citation style.

{3} All citation styles consist of two key parts: (i) an in-text indicator or sign that alerts the reader to the original source of the material that is being noted, summarized, paraphrased, or quoted; and (ii) a list that contains complete bibliographic information.  The former alerts the reader to the fact that the material they are reading is taken from and/or supported by one or more sources.  The latter provides Val’s reader with the information they need to track down and check the original sources.  In every citation style, the two parts need to work together.  The in-text citation, that is, must help the reader clearly identify the complete bibliographic entry in a list at the end of the document.  For most systems, the connection is made alphabetically using the last name or names of the authors.  Val will learn that one significant difference with IEEE is that this is not the case.  IEEE uses a numerical system for both the in-text citation and the list of references.  That is the principal difference that Val will need to remember, but it leads to many other differences that will be explored in this chapter.