With a new school year underway (including those attending colleges and universities), many students will be writing research papers. And for some, it will be the first time. In order to do so, they learn how to use a citation style when citing sources. Some students will learn how to use just one type of citation style, while others might learn more than one.
Any student who learned to use just one citation style and continued to do so during their college years will be in for a surprise. Such was the case for me, for during my senior year of high school, I learned how to do a research paper using the MLA (Modern Language Association) documentation style, and continued to use it during my undergraduate years. It was simple and easy to use. But when I pursued my Master’s in history at the University of Louisville, I found out that I had to use the Turabian Style, which is based on the CMS (Chicago Manual of Style). This was a surprise, since I had not heard of the Turabian or CMS. In fact, I had only heard of two documentation styles–the MLA (which was the only style I had used) and the APA (American Psychological Association).
I soon learned how to use the Turabian/CMS for my research papers, and realized it was a better way of documenting sources, especially with the use of footnotes and endnotes.
The graduate school (as opposed to the history department) supposedly was trying to mandate the APA style for theses and dissertations. When I brought up this matter, I was told not to worry about it, and the issue died a natural death.
I would not be surprised if other people had this type of experience. So, it dawned on me that perhaps learning all these documentation styles in high school English would be beneficial, as shown below:
- Freshman year: MLA
- Sophomore year: APA
- Junior year: CBE (Council of Biology Editors) & COS (Columbia Online Style)
- Senior year: CMS & Turabian
It should be noted that there are probably other documentation styles.
Thus, by learning all of these documentation styles in high school, students will be prepared to use them when they attend college. And knowing more than one way to cite sources will enable them to submit research papers in the many fields of knowledge.
As the saying goes: “Knowledge is Power.”
