Dear Colleagues:  I am following the discussion on citations since it is one of those practical problems that we need to grapple with, in our students' writing, and in our own.  I thank the members of the list for their contributions and for recommending the book "They say  .... , I say".   Although I don't deal directly with long citations, I do deal extensively with the question of 'integrative' and 'non-integrative' citations in my own book, Writing Readable Research (2010);  London: Equinox.  Chapter 8 is devoted to many other problems involved in citing literature such as organization and choice of appropriate verbs. I attach an excerpt from the section on "What Is the Focus in References?" (pp. 98-100)  and hope it will  further develop the discussion. 

 Beverly Lewin


-----Original Message-----
From: European Association for the Teaching of Academic Writing - discussions [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Harbord
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2014 11:34 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Where to place the in-text citation

Dear Colleagues,


The only authoritative guide I can offer is that the Chicago manual (to which all other manuals tend to refer if they can't be bothered with micro details) says that a citation may refer back no more than three sentences. It says this for a footnote citation, but I see no reason to assume that rules would be different for a parenthetic citation. It adds, however, that this rule should be used with caution and it is not wise to rely on a citation to carry back, but better to indicate explicitly. I know of no authority that specifies how many sentences forward a citation can carry.


I suspect here we are in the realm of sensible advice and observing common practice. Style guides tend to limit themselves to what one must or may not do, not what one might best do. I always advise students when they plan to discuss a source over several sentences to mention the author at the start (not first word of the sentence, mind) and provide a citation in that same sentence. My personal preference based on observation is to put that citation right after the name unless you plan to quote, in which case of course the guide will tell you in must come after the quotation marks (with page). I then urge students to refer back to the author with a pronoun in subsequent sentences (and a reporting verb). In this way, no one can mistake the source words for the student's. I also advise to cite again fully (here the style guide should give details) if you shift to a different page of the source.


What I think is more important here, however, is not how to avoid plagiarism when providing several long, tedious summaries. What is important is to get the students away from series of summarised works. I suggest students the following as a simple boilerplate method: start with a sentence of your own presenting the topic, or shifting from the previous topic to the present one; then summarise your source using reporting verbs (X argues, Y suggests, Z points out); then comment on your source using sentences that start with referent nouns (X's argument is..., Y's suggestion seems..., Z's point may be...); if possible wrap up with a summative or concluding comment on why X, Y or Z's opinion is of interest - this can be tricky for weak students.


The next step, if you have the chance is to require them to mention at least two sources in each paragraph, which must either agree or disagree on an issue. Then get them to rewrite the paragraph with the issue, not the authors, in the first and last sentence.


I don't think we should expect students to grasp this quickly as it is at the very core of what we do. If they could learn this overnight, they probably wouldn't need 3 years to complete a degree. But we should persevere at it and get them to check their own work and their peers work to see they have done it. 


None of this of course is authoritative, but persuasive reasoning can sometimes carry more weight than authority.


Best,


John 

>>> Baldur Sigurðsson 04/11/14 3:52 PM >>>
Dear EATAW colleagues.

Can you point out to me authorative guidelines that explain how you place in-text citations differently according to the length and nature of a summary or paraphrase from a source? I have access to a lot of handbooks, guidelines and many useful websites like Purdue, but no one adresses this issue (to my knowledge).

I suppose you know the problem: When summarizing or paraphrasing, students have problems placing their in-text citations (Author, Year) properly in relation to the content. The result may be of two kinds: The reader goes on for several lines (up to a whole paragraph) without knowing what is the source (of if there is a source) or is not sure what is from the author and what is from the source.  

The undergraduates use few sources and usually only one at the time, so whole paragraphs, of up to half a page, are a summary of only one source, which is referred to at the end o f the paragraph in parenthesis (Author, year, page). And thisis cited at the end of each paragraph. 

Using the APA style of citations I do not like this, I want to see the author and citation earlier. I teach my students using signal phrases and notice the difference between introductory sentences and connecting, argumenting or explicatory sentences, phrases etc.  But I feel pretty alone in trying to explain this to my students and my colleagues,  nobody seems to bother, maybe because no handbook on citation mentions this problem.  If a problem is not mentioned in your handbook it does not exist. The students see a lot of this way of citating in final student theses and dissertations in the library and think this is how to do it. 

I am here concerned with the transfer from how beginning students write their essays by paraphrasing long stretches of text from one source and how they gradually learn to compose their paragraphs from multiple sources.
Going through available literature and guidelines I can not find any discussion on this issue. All textbooks and manuals only show you examples of paraphrasing a source that are only a couple of lines, the type of citating trained scholars are used to. Noone deals with the problem of how you cite when paraphrasing long stretches of text from the same source, which is so common among our undergraduate students, and lives on in their writing as long as noone comments on it. 

I am looking for a reference I can use for convincing my colleagues that they should bother as I do. 

Best wishes J

Baldur Sig. 

 

Baldur Sigurðsson,   [log in to unmask]  
Senior lecturer, University of Iceland, School of Education
Director of the   School of Education Writing
Centre
Direct: +354 525 53 39, central: +354 525 40 00, mobile: +354 693 38 41 Writing Centre: +354 525 5975
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