Hi
Welcome back returning
students and welcome new people. As you start to organise yourself and read the
handbooks I hope you will get going blogging and commenting. I am writing a
quick blog on citations requested by Mel. Module Twos and Threes are thinking about their feedback. As you start it is a good time to look at your work with fresh eyes. If you are new starting Module One now is a good time to read through other peoples blogs and see what people have been doing and thinking.
We use the Harvard system. The
idea of a citation is that you are letting the Reader know where you got an
idea or quote from. It is making sure you recognise the places things come
from. It also allows the Reader to go and find out more about that idea or the
rest of the quote because they know where it came from. This is how they know
you write the name of the person who said it and the date of the publication
they said it in just after you mention it (for example (Smith 2012)). If it is
a quote you also write the page number (for example Smith, 2012 p.65). Now the
Reader has what they need to be a detective.
First they go to the end of
your writing to the bibliography.
There you will have written the longer version. The name of the person is first
(Smith) so they can find the name you had in the text and then they check the
date (2012). Smith might have written a number of things that you have quoted
at different times so there maybe a (Smith, 2007) as well. Then the rest of the
long citation in the bibliography tells us the name of the book and who
published. The whole point of all of this is that the Reader can go to the library
and get the same book you were looking at. Then they can turn to the page
(p.65) and read what you read that led you to write about the idea in your
paper. It is all about giving the write information so we can have the same (reading)
experience as you.
If you quote someone – even if
you have just said something about that person you still have to use a citation
at the end of the quote, anyway you need to put the page number as well.
For example:
James
Smith writes about cows in his book ‘I love milk’. Here he is point out that grass
is really important.
‘It
was green and beautiful and fed the cows very well’ (Smith, 2012 p.65)
Also see past posts:
Adesola's BA PP blog: What Sam and Billy say: What Sam and Billy say
Looking forward to a great term everyone
Adesola
Thanks Adesola - citing sources and bibliographies always seem to be problematic but it is worth it to learn the rules in the end as it makes sharing easier with colleagues.
ReplyDeleteThanks Adesloa, this has helped me a lot!
ReplyDeleteI do struggle to get my head rounds certain bits and bobs!!
:)