Source use
"No sooner do we come into this world than bits of us start to drop off." -- Gustave Flaubert
Why you can't trust Word
Microsoft Word 2007 now automatically formats essays in MLA, APA, and Chicago. While this will one day be an excellent feature, it needs to be approached cautiously as you write your first academic essays with this very new technology.
GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT: MS Word will not do it all, of course. You must still insert author, publisher, and date information in the fields provided. As with all things techie, this information has to be correct, or the end product fails miserably. Be sure you understand what kind of information is needed for a works cited page and where to locate it (in the text you are citing) before taking advantage of MS Word's new bibliographic abilities.
LEARNING CURVE ISSUES: Many of the problems that you will confront are basic learning-curve issues. The 2007update of the MS Office Suite requires a particularly steep learning-curve.
- Example 1: If you hit "insert citation" and choose the book option from the pull down menu, Word will then pull up an author field. Unfortunately, there is (seemingly) only room for one author. What if your book has two authors? Then you must hit "edit" next to the author field to add additional authors. Too many students will not bother searching for this second option.
- Example 2: When you click to create and add a new "bibliography" to your MLA formatted essay, a pull-down menu depicts two different options, neither of which is correct for MLA. In one option "Works Cited" is in a different font and font size than the entries below and it is not centered. None of the WC entries are correctly indented either. The writer either has to revise the menu selection, or hit "insert bibliography" at the bottom of the menu. This last option will paste all of your entries in the correct order, but, again, without indents. You will also have to manually add "Works Cited" in the appropriate position (this is the easier option, ultimately).
Too many people, lacking indepth knowledge of what is necessary for complete MLA citations, will even note that the information fields produced before them require additional information. Too many people will simply let MS Word decide what is appropriate without thought. This is the danger, and while the world won't end tomorrow over this issue, your paper grade might suffer just a bit, or maybe even a lot.
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
If you continue using MS Word 2007 (there is the freely available OpenOffice), double-check your parenthetical citations and Works Cited page with your writing handbook. Since this issue brushes up against the serious issue of Academic Dishonesty, be paranoid and talk to your professor if you have any additional questions about citation issues.