On referencing other's works

[Red Heart]

Quoting and Referencing Materials

Many students have initial difficulty with quoting and referencing materials. It is a skill that you learn to develop that is a critical part of writing in the Social Sciences. As outlined in the syllabus you must include both in-text references and an end list of references. The Association of American Geographers utilizes the Harvard system as standard (see http://efn.hud.ac.uk/studyskills/referen.html). Failure to provide in-text references and a final list of source materials could be considered plagiarism, academic dishonesty and result in an automatic grade of ‘Fail’ in the course. You must demonstrate the sources of your information. Also, you cannot cut-and-paste directly from a web-site or copy whole sections of a newspaper or other published article. The vast majority of words in any essay must be your own. The idea of providing reference lists and in-text references is that:

(a) You acknowledge your source materials

(b) Another student could access the same source materials and write the same essay

(c) You demonstrate your skills in accessing and evaluating source materials

A second critical aspect that is highlighted on the syllabus is that internet web-sites are not as reliable as newspapers, books and journals. They do not have fact-checkers and editors monitoring their content. I understand that people want to use the internet to get information, but the regulation on my syllabus is that less than half of your sources can be internet web-sites. You may use one web-site if your essay has two or three references in total (including that web-site); two web-sites if your essay has four or five references in total, etc. A librarian can help you find these non-internet resources.

Example Of How To Reference Source Material

The CIA World Factbook internet website contains the following paragraph about Botswana:

Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name upon independence in 1966. The economy, one of the most robust on the continent, is dominated by diamond mining.

A student essay contains the following passage about Bostwana:

Botswana was formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland and adopted its new name upon independence in 1966. The economy, one of the strongest on the continent, is dominated by diamond mining. The capital city is Gaborone.

To submit this is unacceptable. All that this student has done is moved the first sentence around a little, added the name of the capital, and changed "most robust" to "strongest." No in-text reference is provided. It does not demonstrate to the instructor that the student understands either the material or has referencing and writing skills. All it shows is that a student can look up a web-site and cut and paste from that source. It could be considered plagiarism. Even though it is not exactly word-for-word, changing one or two words per sentence is inadequate. You must rephrase and discuss the source in your own words. Even if this student listed the web-site at the end of their essay, there is still no in-text reference. This means that another person would have difficulty reconstructing the essay as it would be unclear which reference in the final list relates to which material in the text. So, what would be acceptable?

Botswana had been colonized by the British who called it Bechuanaland (CIA, 2002). The capital city is Gaborone, "The economy, one of the most robust on the continent, is dominated by diamond mining" and the country became an independent state in 1966 (CIA, 2002).

References
CIA World Factbook (2002) "Botswana." Internet address: http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/fa ... os/bc.html. Accessed 9/29/2002.

Here the student has appropriately used quotation marks to indicate which words are taken directly from the source, has given in-text references for both the quotation and the other information gained from this source, and has provided a full and accurate reference at the end. This shows that the student has the skills necessary for scholarly Social Science writing, has acknowledged their sources, demonstrated their ability to interpret the source material and assess it in their own words and provided the in-text reference so that another person could go and find out which material in the essay came from which source. You should utilize in-text references throughout your essay every time you utilize information from a source. The rule is, if in doubt, give the reference both in-text and at the end. You may find yourself writing the same source as an in-text reference many times. This is normal and acceptable.

Taken from DePaul University website: Referencing Page http://gis.depaul.edu/ehague/quoting_an ... terial.htm date retrieved 1/4/2009