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Module 5 Journal Entry

·        What is your prior experience with citing your sources? Have you had to use APA or MLA formats? Is this easy for you, or do you struggle? What sources do you use to cite your sources and/or create bibliographies?

The first time I attended college was in 1995 at James Madison University located in Harrisonburg, VA. My freshman year was when I learned how to use a handbook for the MLA writing style.  The styling was hard to get used to since it was all new to me, but by the end of my time at JMU it became easier for me to follow the reference guide for MLA citations and bibliographies. My second collegiate journey started in 2015 at Olympic College, where I have used both MLA and APA formats for several of the papers I have submitted. I often struggled with getting all of the correct bibliographical information for my references, as well as getting them in the proper alphabetical order since it was all done manually.

One of my English Professors at OC gave us a tutorial on the very useful Microsoft Word References Ribbon that was built into the program for all our citation and bibliographical needs. According to some Google sleuthing, I learned that Microsoft Word introduced the References ribbon on their Microsoft Word 2007 release (learningcomputer, 2015). This professor also introduced us to the Purdue Writing Lab (Lab, n.d.) website that provided helpful guides and examples of how to follow along in the proper MLA or APA format. Using both the Purdue OWL website and the References ribbon on MS Word made using citations and creating bibliographies very easy. As long as I remembered to enter my bibliographical sources into MS Word, all I had to do was click a few buttons to add the citation in the proper place as well as an alphabetical and correctly formatted Works Cited list.

This quarter is my first time using the Zotero application not only does it seamlessly work with MS Word, but I can further organize all of my bibliographies into categories and subcategories.  I am now using Zotero for all of my referencing needs for any and all assignments that require citations and references.

 

References:

Lab, P. W. (n.d.). OWL // Purdue Writing Lab. Purdue Writing Lab. Retrieved May 4, 2022, from https://owl.purdue.edu/index.html

learningcomputer. (2015, November 19). Microsoft Word 2007 References Tab Tutorial—Learn MS Word | IT Online Training. https://www.learningcomputer.com/ms_word_references_tab/

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