Sourcing and Citation: A Practiced Technique
Finding and using sources; how did you learn the process? Perhaps it was something you honed through middle school and high school, gathering information from encyclopedias and web sites and laboriously incorporating them into a paper or science project. Or maybe you learned it in a different way.
However it was that you learned to do it, the fact is that using sources is a practiced technique. And it is something that writing students can struggle to accomplish without some guidance. There are students who were well trained, or who had enough personal acumen to figure out how to do things properly; but there are also those who, although they worked diligently, were never introduced to any method of using sources responsibly and clearly. So, the job of the college composition instructor is to address the situation and help students understand what to do.
Why Should I Cite?
In writing, we acknowledge the sources we use for several reasons. First of all, we want to be honest. If we didn’t create the idea ourselves, we can’t take credit for it. If we are going to use the concept, we have to explain that it was someone else’s idea first.
The next reason why we cite sources is so that someone else can follow our research trail. It’s like reporting all the steps you take to complete a science project: you list how much of this substance you used, and how long you waited, and what results you achieved to make it possible for someone else to do the same thing. In research writing, there are readers who will want to check out those sources. Maybe they are writing other papers on a similar topic, and they need the information. Or they might be quizzical, doubting that the answers you are reporting are accurate – they want to test your analysis of the information.
Readers want to be able to use the information they receive, and they want to trust what you say. Give the reader those tools.
A third reason why we cite sources is so that the texts can lend credibility to what we are saying. If we are able to accurately quote, summarize or paraphrase some of the most well-known experts about a topic, then our writings are made more credible to the reader. It’s acceptable for a writer to invent new ideas. But if something has already been discovered or discussed, and the writer is oblivious to that fact, then the believability of that writer is in question. The reader thinks, “If they don’t know about this already, why should I explore their thoughts any further?”
How Do I Cite?
This method is going to vary for every class. Some classes require APA style, others MLA, some Chicago, or AP style. The specific format is for you to decide, based on your department’s or discipline’s requirements.
Although the textbook is the first go-to for citing help, the fact is that there are some things the textbook won’t cover. And some books don’t have a citation section. So, you will want to have a few other sources ready.
What you will want to know, after you know what style of formatting to use, is where to find examples. Use your textbook first: sometimes, this is the most-used portion of the whole book. Before students ask, figure out where the examples of citations for cartoons, web pages, entire websites, reports, television documentaries and YouTube videos are listed. It might even be handy to put the page numbers of these citation formats in your syllabus, in case students check there for help.
Although the textbook is the first go-to for citing help,
the fact is that there are some things the textbook won’t cover. And some books don’t have a citation section. So, you will want to have a few other sources ready.
Do you have a citation guru? There might be someone in your department who is a genius at identifying formatting techniques. Find that person and ask them for tips or, when things get really tough, ask them for help in identifying the really tricky sources.
The library can also be a tremendous help. Research librarians are people who dive into details for a living. They can slice complex information down until they figure out what, exactly, is going on. If a student asks you for citation help, and you’re not seeing some quick answers, go to the librarians or encourage the student to approach them. Librarians are good at deciphering the mysterious enigmas of research.
What Do I Cite?
Fast answer: any claim that is made. If someone says that a person struggled to make his company a success, find the source. If someone says that a team packed up and left town in the middle of the night to transfer headquarters to another city, name that source. If there is a statistic about student loan debt, or tuition data, or the increase of the mountain lion population in prairie states, explain where that information was found. Readers want to be able to use the information they receive, and they want to trust what you say. Give the reader those tools.
Is there anything that doesn’t have to be cited? Yes. General ideas – that gravity, on Earth, drags things downwards; that George Washington was the first U. S. president; that the sunshine is bright – these are general ideas that do not have to be proven.
But if a student is unsure of whether or not to cite something, I recommend that they err on the side of caution. What is ‘generally understood’ can vary from one person to the next. To preclude difficulties, it is permissible to cite too much, especially in an introductory course. It is always easy to cut out text. It isn’t easy to insert information, especially if the original source was unrecorded or has disappeared from the library shelf or the internet.
Wrapping Up Sourcing and Citation
Sources are something to be valued. We show that we value the information we have found when we give a reference to that source. Readers read for information. In the academic setting, when we are writing research-based papers, it is necessary to acknowledge those sources. It protects the writer from charges of plagiarism; it lends credence to what the writer is saying; and it helps the reader, if he or she wants to explore that topic further. While it may seem like a simple formatting issue, really, citing sources is something that helps preserve the integrity of our research efforts. Whether for the classroom or for the world at large, this is what good writing should do.