Of course one thing that we have not mentioned yet, is the question of
academic reading - and the sheer amount of reading that students are now
required to undertake.

I feel that the shift to course work rather than exams has contributed to
a de facto paradigm shift with respect to the 'what, why and how much'
reading that we require of our students.

I know that when I took my first degree (mid-70s-1980), in the first year
we were set a few short pieces of writing (750 words) - for which we were
required to think first - rather than to submerge ourselves in the
thoughts of others...

Gradually reading was required - but no where near the amount that is
required of even first year, first semester students these days.

I know of published articles at that time that only had five or so
references in them - whilst now we expect the most uninitiated student to
have eight to 15 citations in each piece of course work - even when they
may be submitting upwards of eight pieces of course work per semester.

Unfortunately I could not attend the 8th June Referencing Symposium - but
I would hope that one thing that emerged was a plea for less rigid
policing of first year student work. Perhaps some recognition that early
writing can be clunky and imperfect, and that this would contribute to the
development of an active student voice and a recognition that writing is a
learning PROCESS - and not just a measurable product. Perhaps we could set
writing tasks that require students to grapple with ideas, concepts and
arguments - at first - rather than requiring massive reading and the
undigested regurgitation of the thoughts of others.

And perhaps we could see that this is the very opposite of dumbing down -
it is in fact promoting the development of articulate, analytical and
argumentative graduates.

If interested, please see our On-line Literature Review on academic reading:
On-line Literature Review on STUDENT READING:
http://litreview.pbwiki.com/

And blog at:
http://onlinelitreview.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html

And – for those compiling sites/resources on reading and notemaking –
please do look at the resources on www.learnhigher.ac.uk (and go to
reading, notemaking, referencing) … and for a quick hit – here are the
sites that I have found most recently:

Notemaking
Mini-notemaking lecture:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1IHsPt_Nmg

Mini Buzan lecture on Mindmapping:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlabrWv25qQ&feature=related

Our notemaking pages – use ‘the NoteMaker’:
http://www.learnhigher.ac.uk/learningareas/notemaking/home.htm

NoteMaker – with additional topics imported:
http://learning.londonmet.ac.uk/TLTC/learnhigher/notemaker/noteMakerWithVid/noteTaker_2.html

Cornell generator – Generates templates to print off and make notes upon:
http://eleven21.com/notetaker/

Visual Literacy site ‘periodic table’ of pattern notemaking strategies to
support notemaking teaching
http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html#

Buzans’ site – with 7-step guide:
http://www.buzanworld.com/Mind_Maps.htm

Concept map tools website:
http://cmap.ihmc.us/

Really useful resources – see their WORKBOOKS – Notemaking especially
http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/management/external/els/pdf/effectivenotemaking.pdf

Notemaking booklet from Exeter University
http://www.education.ex.ac.uk/dll/studyskills/note_taking_skills.htm

On using images in your learning:
http://rathergraphic.blogspot.com/

Quick guide to keeping references
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/nursing/sonet/rlos/studyskills/harvard/index.html

What to do in lectures:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tiv9GG_SzlI


Reading – also evaluating information
Our pages on student reading:
http://www.learnhigher.ac.uk/learningareas/reading/home.htm

Critical reading towards critical writing
http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/critrdg.html

On-line Literature Review on STUDENT READING:
http://litreview.pbwiki.com/

And blog at:
http://onlinelitreview.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html

Active reading – from Evolving essay:
http://anessayevolves.blogspot.com/2007/02/active-reading.html

How to read a research article:
http://cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba/495/howtoread.html

Reading a psychology paper:
http://portal.psy.gla.ac.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=41&limit=1&limitstart=1

How to read an academic article
http://www.lenmholmes.org.uk/students/oe209/how2read_a.htm

Internet Detective – finding & evaluating information
http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/detective/

For Summarising information:
http://learning.londonmet.ac.uk/busdev/hq1001nc/ecdl/summarizing.htm

Referencing
http://slb-ltsu.hull.ac.uk/awe/index.php?title=Harvard_system_of_referencing
&
http://www.cite.auckland.ac.nz/

for Students:
http://www.staffs.ac.uk/uniservices/infoservices/library/find/references/

Readability (NIACE research…):
http://www.niace.org.uk/development-research/readability

Avoiding plagiarism:
Staff website:
http://learning.londonmet.ac.uk/TLTC/connorj/plagiarism/Staff/

(Avoiding) plagiarism tutorial
http://learning.londonmet.ac.uk/TLTC/learnhigher/Plagiarism/

A resource introducing the concept of integrating evidence into own writing:
http://unilearning.uow.edu.au/main.html

Especially useful is the section "Expressing your voice in academic writing":
http://unilearning.uow.edu.au/academic/4bi.html

Useful papers on plagiarism – especially in visual media
http://www.jiscpas.ac.uk/casestudies.php

With best wishes,
Sandra Sinfield
London Met




> Dear Martin, et al,
> Many thanks for your contribution to the debate - most welcome, especially
> all the way from sunny New Zealand. Indeed, it is [in a peculiar sort of
> way] re-assuring to hear that academia's self-inflicted problems are on a
> global scale. Added to this, we in HE also have a responsibility to our
> overseas students. They have many culture shocks to cope with when
> adapting to our Western lifestyle and arrogant academic ways. The message
> we give out seems to be: this is the way it is done, the system and
> standards are inflexible (and perfect), you have to like it or lump it,
> and if you want your degree you must jump through our academic hoops.
> Your anecdote about the PG is very illuminating. It seems to reinforce the
> points made in my article (not in the blog) and at The University of
> Bradford symposium on 'Referencing and Writing' (8th June) that some
> academics have a 'fetish' for specific referencing styles. Certain
> academics seem to defend the status quo with a high degree of vitriol. It
> is as if they are under an ego-attack and they must defend themselves at
> all costs.
> If any other LDHEN contributors have examples of how students have
> suffered when referencing, I would certainly appreciate hearing from them
> - thanks.
> Your experience with EndNote, Martin, is also noted, especially with
> regard to the in-text referencing.
> I hope that my suggestion of adding the type of source does not add to
> anyone's difficulty. I suppose I am a swings-and-roundabouts person. That
> is, the gain will be the elimination of the brackets, italics, bolding,
> inverted commas, etc.
> Yes, 100% yes, about departments becoming more consistent in their advice
> and flexible in their marking of UG assignments. As you rightly point out,
> the vast majority of our students will not submit a paper to a journal in
> their lives. Just because we academics write books and journal articles
> this should not mean that we have to impose our expectations upon our
> students.
> Yes, there is evidence that the emphasis upon rigid referencing rules is
> actually making students hate writing - it 'inhibits' their writing - see
> LearnHigher findings:
> http://www.learnhigher.ac.uk/Referencing/View-category.htm.
> As you rightly argue, academic departments need to critically examine
> their attitudes, handbooks, inconsistencies, and the mixed messages they
> give to students. The whole area of academic referencing is probably the
> most under-research aspect of HE going. Has anyone any good suggestions as
> to how we can get departments and academics to critically analyse their
> own referencing methodologies? "Physician, heal thyself"!
> You make a good point about the UG experience simply being part of "a
> developmental process". Academics should not endeavour to make little
> clones of themselves - heaven forbid.
> Thanks for your website link - I have bookmarked it using my new Delicious
> system.
> Keep in touch.
> Take Care,
> ALEC GILL MBE
> [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> 01482.466344 - Office
> Study Advice Service
> Academic Tutor + MultiMedia Developer
> www.hull.ac.uk/studyadvice
> www.hull.ac.uk/php/cesag <http://www.hull.ac.uk/php/cesag>  - my research
> work
> 01482.225009 - Home
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: learning development in higher education network on behalf of
> McMorrow, Martin
> Sent: Wed 24/06/2009 01:46
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Abundance of Academic Referencing Style
>
>
>
> Thanks to Alex, Neville, Leonard etc for their contributions on the topic
> of referencing. The points raised in Neville's research and in Alex's
> article certainly ring true in my experience of dealing with students who
> are feeling frustrated or mystified by the requirements of academic
> referencing. And this is in a context where most students only need to use
> APA style (as it's been adopted by the College of Business, where most of
> the students I see are studying). It's also the case that lecturers are
> inconsistent both in their own uses / examplars of referencing and in
> their policy in assessing referencing.
>
>
>
> Yesterday, I saw a postgraduate student here whose lecturer had gone
> through her work with a fine toothcomb - the lecturer had, for instance,
> deleted the date in the in-text reference whenever a work had been
> previously cited in the same paragraph. She did this about 20 times. To be
> honest, I didn't realise that dates weren't to be included for second
> references in the same paragraph - even after three years of giving
> workshops on referencing. Mea culpa. On checking in the tome known as the
> APA Publication Manual (fifth edition), I discovered that actually
> repeating the date isn't 'wrong' anyway, but just unnecessary - the
> relevant guideline appears on page 208, in case you're interested: "Within
> a paragraph, you need not include the year in subsequent references to a
> study as long as the study cannot be confused with other studies cited in
> the article". By the way, I suspect that endnote would be unable to help
> students with that decision.  But in this lecturer's mind, such a practice
> was wrong - and had to be stamped out - every time! Like a sin.
>
>
>
> What's the best response? Leonard's ideas on showing students the purpose
> of citation seem very useful. But I don't share his faith in endnote etc -
> I don't see these programmes as sorting out referencing any more than
> spelling and grammar checks sort out students writing. I've seen too many
> examples of nonsensical lists produced by endnote - on the 'garbage in,
> garbage out' principle. And, in any case, it doesn't help students much
> with in-text referencing, which is where the biggest difficulties emerge,
> I think. Alex's reformed referencing scheme doesn't seem to be a solution
> either. It doesn't seem very different from APA and the need to specify
> which kind of source it is, might actually add to the difficulty (students
> may, for instance, not know if something is a blog, a podcast, an ebook
> etc).
>
>
>
> What I'd like to see from university departments is both more consistency
> and more flexibility in relation to the use and acknowledgement of
> sources. On the flexibility side, for instance, why should students lose
> marks over the punctuation of their reference lists? Their introductory
> essay on corporate social responsibility - one of a thousand - is hardly
> going to be published - and the vast majority of these students will not
> be going on to write up research in journals. Ever. Mastering the
> intricacies of referencing 'rules' is a relevant to them as Latin
> conjugations were to us at school. Could it be that our emphasis on
> referencing rules is actually making the students hate writing?
>
>
>
> In terms of consistency, I think that the departments have to look very
> critically (as they're ALWAYS asking the students to do!) at the mixed
> messages they're giving regarding referencing / intellectual property /
> acknowledging sources etc. For instance, if it's always necessary to
> acknowledge your sources, why get the students to write essays in closed
> book exam conditions? The implicit message is, I think: Sometimes we want
> you to act like us academics, and sometimes we want you to act like
> traditional schoolkids, reproducing unattributed knowledge that you've
> crammed into your brains. And you students need to know which rules we are
> applying to which assessment - or you fail.
>
>
>
> Having said that, I think that many of the lecturers here are already
> pretty flexible and also see referencing, like all the other areas of
> academic literacy, as a developmental process. The student body is so
> diverse, they really have to be. But more consistency would be nice.
>
> Cheers from bright and chilly Albany, New Zealand
>
> Martin McMorrow
>
> International Student Podcast http://tinyurl.com/6xy9xy
>
> Oh, and do have a look at the referencing advice website produced by Jenny
> Marshall at Auckland Uni http://www.cite.auckland.ac.nz
> <http://www.cite.auckland.ac.nz/>
>
>
>
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