Reference list refers to the way it would be cited in
your reference list or bibliography when using the 'Cite
Them Right' Harvard style.
In-text citation refers to the way that a work would
be
cited either in the body of the text or in footnotes
when using 'Cite
Them Right' Harvard style.
Elements to include:
Author of paper.
Year of publication (in round brackets)
Title of paper (in single quotation marks)
Title of conference proceedings: subtitle (in italics)
Location and date of conference.
Place of publication: Publisher.
Page references for the paper.
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.
Overview
There are at least two approaches you might take when teaching
students the citation norms in your discipline. You might focus
primarily on avoiding plagiarism and producing appropriately formatted
in-text citations and reference lists;
alternatively, you might use a
discussion of citation norms as an opportunity to help students become
more aware of how those norms function rhetorically within your
scholarly community.
The former might be preferable if you have limited
time available, while the latter can allow for deeper understanding of
how to interpret and produce key scholarly moves.
General Considerations
Even first-year students generally know that they should cite others’
work in order to avoid plagiarizing. However, undergraduates at all
levels don’t necessarily understand:
a. How to integrate in-text citations properly.
b. How to format reference lists and understand the logic behind the formatting rules.
c. How to determine what kind of sources
they are working with (ex: should they consider a compact disc a
“cd-rom” or a “sound recording”?) and where to locate key identifying
information to cite (ex: how can they tell which is the volume number
and which is the issue number in a scholarly article?)
d. That “patchwork plagiarism,” or the cobbling together of snippets gathered from many sources, is plagiarism.
e. What counts as common knowledge in your discipline and what needs to be cited.
Furthermore, students often see citation norms as arbitrary rules
that they must follow only to avoid getting in trouble for plagiarizing.
Yet, honoring disciplinary citation norms also helps scholars perform
several other crucial tasks that students might not immediately
recognize:
f. Providing research aid to those studying similar questions.
g. Establishing credibility—showing that one has read and understood key works.
h. Drawing attention to the contributions of others.
i. Signaling original contributions—citing work by others in order to highlight what is new in one’s own.
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:
Patch-writing
The
goals of this lesson are to have students think about their writing
processes and their use of patch-writing, 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
patch-writing 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.
Why is referencing important?
Research involves using other people's ideas and work to develop
your own conclusions. You must acknowledge all of the sources you have
used.
When you have an accurate
reference:
you can find an information source again quickly and easily your lecturers and tutors can find the source of the information you used in your assignments .
other people reading your work can find the source of the information you can share information without the need to give a copy of the source you acknowledge the effort made by the original author, who may
have spent years creating that source of information, or finding the
facts.
What is plagiarism?
If you try to pass off someone else's work as your
own, that is plagiarism.
If your work contains plagiarized content,
you may be penalized by:
having to resubmit your assignment
being marked down
failing your assignment
failing your course.
Plagiarism may be accidental or deliberate.
Exercises
Classroom activities can be designed to discourage plagiarism and to
help students identify the rhetorical value of citations. The exercises
below correspond to the problems listed above. The first exercise (a)
may be the most helpful if your goal is to teach students how to format
in-text citations and reference lists properly.
a. Walk students through a published
journal article in your field. Ask them to describe the in-text
citations they see. When—if ever—are authors’ names introduced within
sentences (“According to Brown and White…”)? And when are they tucked
into parentheses “(Brown and White, 1999)? Help them interpret the
significance of these differences.
b. Ask students to describe and
interpret the patterns they see in a reference list or bibliography.
What characteristics appear first? What appears second? Why might these
things appear in the order they do?
c. Give students a selection of sources
to cite, along with a citation guide. Ask them to produce, individually
or in groups, a properly formatted reference list. Make sure some of
sources are unusual—compact discs, comic strips, data from a government
web site—and that others lack explicit labels for key identifiers such
as volume or issue number. Help students figure out how to cite these
works as questions arise.
e. Provide a set of facts, concepts, or
arguments, including some that should be documented and others that
count as common knowledge. Ask the students, individually or in groups,
to decide which is which and explain why.
f. Give students a specific research
question to address. Provide a single, relevant article that includes at
least two relevant references as a starting point and ask them to
generate a list of 10-15 other possible resources by working their way
through a “tree” of reference lists that branches off from the original
two.
g. Ask students to choose a field in
which they consider themselves experts. (This doesn’t have to be
academic. Excellent soccer skills or a thorough knowledge of Beatles
trivia could serve the purpose.) What lack of knowledge would prevent
them from taking others seriously in this realm, and why?
Share with
them some key texts or ideas that play a crucial role in establishing
your own respect for other scholars. What omissions would prevent you
from taking others seriously, and why?
h. Talk to students about your own
academic genealogy—the scholars to whom you are indebted. How do you fit
into a larger picture of scholarly exchange? How do you acknowledge
your academic debts in your own writing?
i. Walk your students through a
paragraph or two of a published text from your field. Note the signaling
moves that convey transitions between acknowledging research
contributions of the past (“As Brown and White noted in 1992…”) to
original contributions the writers make in the present study (“To that
end, I/we propose…”).