Danger zones

Last Blog item we discussed the Sources needed in an essay. A lot of students have asked me over the years, how many sources should be in my bibliography? 'It depends!' I say. How long is the essay? For a 2000 word humanities essay anything from 10-20 but it depends on the type of assignment -an essay, or report, or review? Should each item be cited in the text of the essay? 'Yes, preferably'. How should they be referred to in the text? By their author's name and give the reference! How? See your own college's style guide.

The subject tutor is looking for your understanding of the topic. Answering the question as specifically as you can is necessary. To do that we need to use the information gleaned from the sources of differing opinions and angles. Some students try to 'carpet tile' quotation after quotation; that is not a good style because it does not give the understanding of the subject well enough.

The information need not be in verbatim (word for word) quotations, even if the accurate reference is given in footnotes (Chicago or MRA) or in the 'in-text' reference (Harvard or APA). The argument can be in the students' own words, to show their understanding of it. The various opinions must fit and flow together for the long term argument of the assignment. So no carpet tiling!

Danger Zone 1: In note taking from various books and articles you may have taken down the actual words of the author and in copying it into the essay you do not note them as verbatim with 'speech marks' and thus forget to reference them too. Even without quoting word for word, if you get an idea from a source it must be referenced.

Danger Zone 2: After one idea quoted and referenced, a student may have another idea from a source now forgotten. So rather than a direct quotation, the student thinks to paraphrase the words; would that be safe? It depends on how it is done. Just replacing an 'and' or 'which...' phrase with a colon and new phrase while the key words are left in place and in order makes the Turnitin citation program think it is still a quotation; if not referenced this could land you in accusations of Academic Malpractice, questioning your 'Academic Integrity'.

Danger Zone 3: Websites! It is so easy just to copy and paste chunks into an essay from a pertinent article. Students might have thought it would be referenced and fine but when paragraph after paragraph comes from the same source, none of the essay will appear to be the student's own thinking. Obviously not referencing the website at all is not intended but overdependence on any one source can reveal a lack of work by the students in thinking through the question for themselves.

No entry:

So make no entry to an essay from a source without full referencing, and proper punctuation marks, and attributions. Try to write something of this nature: Wright said, '.x,y,z' because....(reference) and yet Bird comments that ... (changed to write in one's own words) (reference). This is due to..., and argue accordingly. Use more than one source on each page. Check the work for any accidental copying without referencing. Indeed, check the whole piece before submitting. It is hard to see your own mistakes.

Story Time? Mirabel and Reference Entries

Mirabel decided to get on with that essay. Where were her notes from that book by Stibbe on John the story teller? Then there were other books on John. Even NT Wright has written on John's gospel as well as his tomes on Paul. Which book did 'that' quotation come from? It wasn't just a page number that was missing. The librarian had made her laugh when telling students that some had phoned up to ask for a specific page number from a certain book as if the librarian had perfect knowledge of every source ever accessioned. Now she had forgotten the author title and page number, let alone the publishing details. So she would just rework the idea as if it were her own. Turnitin would not recognise that surely? She was running out of time and couldn't just go back to the library, or even find what she wanted online. This was running into danger. No, she had to find the real source. Go online. Find the list of books and articles in the lecturers suggested bibliography. Go through each author. Oh what a long process to find such a needle in such a haystack.

Mirabel said out loud to herself., 'Remember to note down the exact source, all details and whether I have written it out in full or just got the idea and noted it down.'