John and colleagues

back to the referencing issue?

you ask:
> (How) Can this scramble to get assignments to fit academic 
conventions
> for reasons of form alone ("so it's all proper in your references") or
> to get a tick in a box ("he said you have to be critical, didn't he?")
> be converted somehow into creative work that serves more 
serious
> learning and study activities?

If we stop asking students to write **as a student**, and **to** us 
as teachers, then we might start asking them to write **as** 
....scholars? practitioners in a particular field?
Let's stop asking students to write 'essays' (like wot they wrote at 
school, thereby evoking school-pupil identity and behaviour). Let's 
ask them to write **academic papers**, as writing an article for an 
academic journal - like a researcher/ scholar would. That would 
begin to evoke some sense of the kind of identity to which they 
might aspire as a graduate. They then need to become familiar with 
the practices appropriate to such an identity, and familiar with what 
is involved in the production of text that meets the expectations of 
editors, reviewers and readers of academic journals. Those 
expectation include appropriate citation and referencing. 

As they do this, they would also become more familiarised with 
academic literature, with the genres, style(s), conventions, flow and 
rhythmns, etc. Through this, the textual artefacts of academic 
knowledge production processes become demystified.

Of course, we may also want then to engage in the practices in 
other arenas, eg of a particular occupational field. So we may want 
them to, eg, write a report - not just 'in report form' but **to** a 
particular audience, **from** a particular position. 

Above all, it's a question of rehearsal of identity through 
engagement in appropriate practices (cf the Lave and Wenger view 
on situated learning **as** [not **through**] legitimate periheral 
participation. Allied to that is that assessment involves us 
(teachers/ assessors) deciding to what extent we would warrant 
the students (usually implicit) claim to be worthy of the qualification 
to which they aspire, and thus to the goods that are normally 
associated (good job, good career, entry to advanced study, 
respect). 

As for Google, we should encourage students to use Google 
Scholar, and to follow up citations of particular texts, as well as 
other electronic facilities for searching scholarly literature.

On citation: students should cite **original** sources even when 
they have discovered there existence through other sources, 
whether textbooks or the web. It's the original author's ideas and 
argument that the student is citing, not the fact that another writer 
cites them.

nearly home time.

regards

Len



On 5 May 2006, at 15:33, John Hilsdon wrote:

> Dear All
> 
> 
> 
> I'm working at our Exmouth campus today, where despite the gorgeous
> weather, Education Studies students are frantically completing
> assignments for imminent deadlines. Have just been for a coffee and
> overheard parts of a conversation including the following:
> 
> 
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -- -------------------------------------
> 
> 
> 
> ...but I still need to find a criticism of x - he said you have to be
> critical, didn't he?
> 
> 
> 
> So just Google it - put in something like criticisms of x - I'll be
> you'll get something if you put the book title in too
> 
> 
> 
> Yeah but I got told a Google reference was no good
> 
> 
> 
> You don't reference Google you ****** !
> 
> 
> 
> Yeah but it's still an internet reference - they don't like that, do
> they
> 
> 
> 
> You don't say it's from the internet do you ... you just find out the
> thing it was published in and copy that - so it's all proper in your
> references  ... 
> 
> 
> 
> Take you about ten minutes, mate - honest!
> 
> 
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -- --------------------------
> 
> 
> 
> Have a stack of urgent stuff but couldn't resist relaying this!  
> 
> 
> 
> Some of the things that went through my head - in no particular order:
> 
> 
> 
> So what? Should we worry?
> 
> 
> 
> Is it just a 'game' being played here - if so, is it being played
> well?
> 
> 
> 
> Wouldn't I be doing things the same way if I were a student today
> (especially with a deadline to meet)?
> 
> 
> 
> Whose 'fault' is it that students do things/see things this way at
> university?
> 
> 
> 
> Does the growing awareness of the rules of the 'game' these students
> display contribute/substitute in any way for good academic practice in
> reading and referring to relevant sources? 
> 
> 
> 
> Is discouragement of the use of Google in such circumstances just
> snobbery?
> 
> 
> 
> (How) Can this scramble to get assignments to fit academic conventions
> for reasons of form alone ("so it's all proper in your references") or
> to get a tick in a box ("he said you have to be critical, didn't he?")
> be converted somehow into creative work that serves more serious
> learning and study activities?
> 
> 
> 
> Might the activity suggested in the conversation lead to some genuine
> study reading/research if the topic is interesting enough and the
> student decides to follow it up later?
> 
> 
> 
> Anyway ... back to the 'urgent' stuff!
> 
> John Hilsdon 
> Co-ordinator, Learning Development 
> Educational Development 
> University of Plymouth 
> Drake Circus 
> Plymouth 
> PL4 8AA 
> 
> 01752 232276 
> [log in to unmask] 
> www.plymouth.ac.uk/learn 
> 
> 
> 
> 


Dr Leonard Holmes
Principal Lecturer in Human Resource Management
Manager of Postgraduate Programmes in HRM
Luton Business School, Putteridge Bury Campus,
Hitchin Road, Luton LU2 8LE
tel. 01582 743111 ext 5014
email [log in to unmask]
websites: http://www.re-skill.org.uk
          http://www.odysseygroup.org.uk

email: [log in to unmask]

websites: www.re-skill.org.uk
          www.odysseygroup.org.uk