Preparing a thorough and convincing report requires excellent research, .

             organization, and composition skills as well as extensive knowledge of documenting .

             referenced materials. The purpose of this report is to present the importance of .

             documenting a report with credible references and the techniques for creating .

             accurate citations.

             Documenting with References.

             For a report to be credible and accepted by its readers, a thorough review of .

             related literature is essentials. This background information is an important part of .

             the report and provides believability of the writer and of the report. When sharing .

             this literature in the body of the report, the report writer understands the following .

             basic principles of report documentation.

             All ideas of others must be cited so that credit is given appropriately.

             The reader will need to be able to locate the material using the information included in the reference citation.

             Format rules apply to ideas stated as direct quotations and ideas that are paraphrased.

             A thorough list of references adds integrity to the report and to the report writer.

             Good writer learn quickly how to evaluate the many printed and electronic .

             references that may have been located to support the theme of the report being written. Those references judged acceptable are then cited in the report. Writers of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (1994, 174-175) share these simple procedures for preparing a references list that correlates with the references cited in the report body:.

             Note that a reference list cites works that specifically support a particular article. In contrast, a bibliography cites works for background for appear in the references list; conversely, each entry in the reference list must be cited in text.

             Using a Style Manual.

             Three popular style manuals are the MLA Handbook, The Chicago Manual of Style, and the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.