MMC
NOTEBOOK - NOTE #D6: ASA
PUBLICATION FORMAT.
Scholarly writing, as writing for other
purposes, has a set of conventions and guidelines. These are set
down in style manuals published by various persons and
organizations. Scholarly, research and professional journals have
guidelines for authors who wish to publish in them. Newspapers and
popular periodicals often do also. College and university
instructors may require that term papers and other work conform to a
specific style manual. The bibliographies accompanying papers and
assignments must be formatted by these standards. The basic
formats for citing works within a paper and several of the common
items included in cited literature (bibliographies and/or reference
lists) are illustrated here.
The MMC Sociology Department recommends
using ASA style for papers in sociology courses.
This note is based on the recommendations
found in this book: American Sociological Association.
1997. American Sociological Association Style Guide. 2nd ed.
Washington, DC: American Sociological Association.
PAPER
ORGANIZATION
Most college papers are reviews of
literature or position papers based on the literature. The paper, in
effect, is meant to summarize and to teach about a specific topic or
viewpoint. Typically a paper:
* states a problem
*
summarizes past and current research or
* discusses
relationships, compares and contrasts or applies information to a
problem.
CONVENTIONS
Writing should
conform to the conventions of the ASA style.
CITED
LITERATURE
A reference list is a list of the items
cited in the body of the paper. Bibliographies may be items read in
preparation but not cited specifically, or, a list of suggested
items for further study. Examples of parenthetical references within
the text are as follows:
Cite all references in the
text, where appropriate, by the author's last name, publication
year, and (when you quote directly from a work or refer to a
specific passage) page number(s). Footnotes are not to be used for
citations.
Depending on sentence construction, the
citation will appear as follows: Bowen and Finegan (1999) or (Bowen
and Finegan 1999). If a page number is used, it follows the
publication year and is set off by a colon: Kennedy and Silverman
(1985:276).
Enclose a series of citations within
parentheses, separated by semicolons. Place multiple citations in
alphabetical order: (Clemente and Kleiman 1997; Kennedy and
Silverman 1995; Lee 1992).
For works by two authors, cite both last
names. For three authors, cite all three last names in the first
citation in the text: (Carr, Smith, and Jones 1992a:366); thereafter
use only the first author's surname, followed by "et al." in the
citation: (Carr et al. 1992a:366). If a work has more than three
authors, use "et al." in the first citation and in all subsequent
citations.
Except as noted above in the case of
three authors, make subsequent citations of a source exactly as
cited the first time. If an author has two citations in the same
year, distinguish them by attaching a or b to the year in both the
text and the references: (Ploch 1995a, 1995b).
Reference Section
Begin the reference section on a new page
titled "References," immediately following the end of the text and
footnotes. Arrange the references in alphabetical order, double
spaced. Type the first line of each reference item flush to the
left-hand margin; indent subsequent line(s) of the item at least
three spaces. Supply complete information on each reference. Below
are a set of general guidelines:
- List surname, first initial, and
middle initial (if any) of author(s). Follow by year of
publication and then the rest of the citation.
- For two or more references by the same
author(s), list them in order of the year of publication. Use six
hyphens and a period (------.) in place of the name when the
authorship is the same as in the preceding citation.
- Capitalize first letters of major
words in titles of articles. Enclose titles of journal articles
and book chapters in quotation marks.
- Italicize the name of the journal in
which the article appears. Include the volume number and page
numbers of the journal.
- Italicize book titles. Capitalize
first letters of major words in titles.
- In book references, include the
location and name of the publisher. Name the city in which the
publisher is located. Name the state only when the location of the
city is not commonly known or when more than one state has a city
of that name (e.g., Springfield). Use standard two-letter
abbreviations for names of states (e.g., IL, TN, NJ).
- If a book is a second or later
edition, include that information.
Examples of Reference Section
Citations
Article in journal:
Deseran, F.A. and D. Keithly. 1994. "Teenagers in the
U.S. Labor Force: Local Labor Markets,
Race, and Family."
Rural Sociology 59:668-92.
Book:
Lobao, L.M.
1990. Locality and Inequality. Albany: SUNY
Press.
Article or chapter in an edited
volume:
Zuiches, J.J. 1982.
"Residential Preferences." Pp. 247-63 in Rural Society in the
U.S.: Issues for the 1980s, edited by D.A. Dillman and
D.J. Hobbs. Boulder: Westview.
Government document:
Beale, C.L. 1975. The Revival of Population Growth
in Nonmetropolitan America. ERS-605,
U.S. Department of
Agriculture. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing
Office.
Dissertation:
Dorsi, L. 1999. "Ecology and Agriculture: A Partial
Replication and Update of Maro's Study in
Girdle Bend, Oregon."
PhD dissertation, Department of Ecology, Atlantis
University.
Unpublished manuscript:
Mundi, G. 1998. "Environmentalism and Youth
Activities." Department of Sociology, St. Pippin's
College,
Cincinnati. Unpublished manuscript.
Presented paper:
Anderson, A. 1999. "Forest Preservation in the
Midwest." Presented at the annual meetings of the Rural Sociological
Society, August 16, Chicago.
Newspaper article (print):
Goldstein, A. 1997. "Dying Patients' Care Varies
Widely by Place, Study Says." Washington Post, October 15, p.
A1.
Machine-readable data file:
American Institute of Public Opinion. 1976. Gallup
Public Opinion Poll #965 [MRDF]. Princeton,
NJ: American
Institute of Public Opinion [producer]. New Haven: Roper Public
Opinion
Research Center, Yale University
[distributor].
Document on an organizational,
governmental agency or institutional website.
American Nurses
Association. 1996. "Telehealth--issues for Nursing." Available from
Nursing World Reading & Reference Room. Retrieved
November 11, 2001
(http://www.nursingworld.org/readroom/).
Electronic Book
Baddeley, A. D.
1999. Essentials of human memory. Hove, England:
Psychology Press. Retrieved November 09, 2001
(http://www.netlibrary.com).
On-line journal article:
Jacobsen, J.W., J.A. Mulick, and A.A. Schwartz. 1995.
"A History of Facilitated Communication: Science, Pseudoscience, and
Anti-Science." American Psychologist 50:750-65. Retrieved
January 25, 1996
(http://www.apa.org/journals/jacobsen.html).
On-line newspaper article:
Goldstein, A. 1997. "Dying Patients' Care Varies
Widely by Place, Study Says." Washington Post, October 15,
p.A1. Retrieved October 15,
1997
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-10/15/0661-101597-idx.html).
On-line abstract:
Swidler, A. and J. Arditi. 1994. "The New Sociology
of Knowledge" (abstract). Annual Review of
Sociology
20:305-29. Retrieved October 15,
1997
(http://www.annurev.org/series/sociology/Vol20/so20abst.htm).
Full-text articles from commercial
database:
Davis, M.S. 1999. "Aphorisms and Cliches: The
Generation and Dissipation of Conceptual Charisma." Annual Review
of Sociology, Annual:245. Retrieved October 3, 2001
Available: Expanded Academic Index.
Globokar, T. 1996. "Intercultural management in
Eastern Europe: An Empirical study of a French-Slovenian plant."
International Studies of Management & Organization. 26:47 (13
pages). Retrieved October 3, 2001 Available: Expanded Academic
Index.
Video
(documentary)
Whitney Museum of Art. 1987. American Art Today
A View from the Whitney: the 1987 Bieniel Exhibition from the
Whitney Museum of Art. N.Y.: Whitney Museum of Art.
Videocassette.
Video (feature
film)
Lean, D. 1993. The Bridge on the River Kwai.
Burbank, CA: Columbia TriStar Home Video.
Videocassette.
