Topics 2
Referencing
A New Approach to Teaching Referencing
Introduction:
Knowing how to reference is important not only for students studying in English- speaking countries, but also for those who might want to publish in English-medium journals. As English language teachers, we need to take the lead in designing a coherent referencing curriculum to enable our students to authoritatively quote and paraphrase so they are better equipped to achieve their academic goals.
A new approach:
The following approach to teaching referencing focuses on establishing textual authority and separating the voices of authors in writing. Taking as its starting point the assumption that plagiarism is a cultural construct, it removes textual borrowing from the realm of morality and addresses the culturally different ways that we read and construct texts. The five lessons presented below should be reinforced through conferencing, margin comments, and follow-up discussions.
The First Lesson:
The first lesson in teaching students how to separate voices is to teach them to distinguish between quoting and paraphrasing. The goal is to show students that voices should not be melded together.First, have the students read the definitions. They seem straightforward, and the students will likely say they understand. Then, have the students determine whether each of the quotes would be acceptable to use in a paper.Next, have the students determine whether the paraphrases could be used in a paper.
1-The first example is a typical instance of an unacceptable paraphrase; the sentence is largely
the words of the original, with some omitted.
2-The second example “corrects” this by putting the omitted words back in, yielding an unattributed quote.
3-The third example changes most of the main words in the sentence but preserves the structure. Even students who recognize the first two as unacceptable are surprised by the fact that the third is also unacceptable.
4-The fourth example is the only acceptable paraphrase. It is longer than the previous one. Point out that this is because it is much easier to paraphrase a chunk of text than a single sentence.
2-The second lesson: Introducing a source:
The goal of this lesson is to give students some language to separate voices in their writing. Begin by explaining that the first time they mention a source in a paper, they must introduce it by including the author’s last name and the date of publication. Then, explain that writers include information to help their readers understand why and how they are using the source.
This part of the lesson requires texts that the students have read and will write about. Second, have the students consider how to give an overview of the texts. Students should determine whether it is helpful to include the titles or not. Have the students summarize the purpose, main point, or topic of the source text in their own words. Finally, have the students practice writing introductory sentences that include the author, date, and text overview for each source.
Lesson 3: Patchwriting
The goals of this lesson are to have students think about their writing processes and their use of patchwriting, and to make suggestions for composing acceptable paraphrases.First, prepare a handout with excerpts from a text the students have read. Then include examples of patchwriting based on these readings from student writing from previous classes.
Lesson 4: How references function:
The goal of this lesson is to show students that referencing places authors in a discourse community and helps construct their authority.
Lesson 5: Cultural differences:
The goal of this lesson is to encourage students to talk about their past writing experiences, discuss quoting and paraphrasing, and clarify cultural differences in writing and referencing styles. Prepare a handout with a quote from a student that reflects a culturally different way of constructing textual authority.