It's not enough to just make statements and assure your reader that they are true. Imagine how writing would sound if – instead of backing our ideas up with outside sources – we simply ended every statement with "...true story." Not very effective, huh? Good writing is always inclusive of accurate sources that are appropriately integrated and documented. Chapter 7 in the Bedford Book of Genres provide advice on just that.
One aspect of the chapter that I found very informative was the distinctions made between paraphrasing and summarizing. These are tactics that I truly thought were no different from one another until I read chapter 7. I also enjoyed the segment that explained when it is appropriate to directly quote a source. According to the Bedford Book of Genres, quotes are most appropriate when the dialogue of the speaker is so perfectly phrased that a paraphrase or summary would be doing it a disservice. Quotes should also only be made regarding experts in the field, in order to reinforce credibility.
An important portion of chapter 7 is the one that refers to avoiding plagiarism. It is very easy for even the most noble and honest person to accidentally plagiarize in their writing. However, being college students in a zero tolerance university, we must take every measure possible to avoid making this mistake. Plagiarism is something that is not taken lightly in college or in the professional world. It can single handedly destroy our careers, which is why we must heed the warnings of the Bedford Book of Genres in order to avoid falling victim to it. We can do this by recording all bibliographical information as we write, rather than relying on memory. Words to live by for this chapter are: WHEN IN DOUBT, CITE IT OUT!
Finally, I greatly appreciate the detail on citations for both the MLA and APA formats. In college, I am currently taking a variety of classes taught by a variety of professors with a variety of preferences. So for chapter 7 to provide help on each style, I am now equipped to cite for any of my classes, rather than just for ENC2135.