3 – Citing Sources

Why Should I Care?

It’s so easy now to buy a paper online. Teachers and all sorts of readers know this. They don’t trust you. To convince the reader of your integrity, the least you can do is attribute the ideas in your paper to their rightful author. What’s yours is yours, but what belongs to someone else must be attributed to him.

Definitions

Citation:            Any attribution of an idea, to an author.

Quote:              Using word for word, textual or verbal, citation. In quotation marks. “fds”

                        In French <<  >> « allo »

Paraphrase:        An attribution that is rewritten in your own words, not textual transcription.

In English, “to cite” means to attribute an idea to the proper author, whether you are using your own words, or quoting exact words.

In French, to cite (citer) means to quote exact words.

Also, in French, quotation marks are called angled brackets or chevrons, with a space.

Ex:       « Les Français font toujours les choses à leur façon », said some French guy.

In MLA and APA style, both quotes and paraphrases are cited using round brackets, or parentheses.

Ex: The woods were dirty (James, 2005).

MLA and APA citation styles are in the Dawson Handouts here:

https://www.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/academic-skills-centre/apa-mla-style-sheets/

Plagiarism:                     Copy someone without attribution

This is bad!

 

Misappropriation:           Quote the wrong person

Quote was never spoken

Exact words were changed

Meaning was changed

Sources

Go to the library. Saves time. Use librarians. A visit is worth time and effort that could be wasted on Google.

Get that big book that covers the history of the larger picture.

Get the magazine article from National Geographic that covers the field and background.

Sit down on a chair and read.

Then, later, at home, go access internet databases. Download and SAVE the pdf full-length articles.

Library terms

Journal                                      A scholarly periodical, published by university scientists/researchers

Electronic Journal                      Paid-for (in a database like JStor or Ebscohost), or Free (website)

Monograph                               Book, by an academic. NOT SOLD IN BOOKSTORES

Peer-reviewed publication           Process by which articles are proof-read by scientists, intent on finding                                                        methodological mistakes.

Checking for quality

Relevance:

• How closely related to your topic is this document?
• Is it recent? Is it too technical?
• Can it provide references to find more documents?

Reliability:

• Is it scholarly? Is the author reputed and credible?
• Is it high-quality news media like The Economist or the Wall Street Journal?
• Is the methodology stated, Is there a bibliography?

Quick reading an article

 

Articles always have the same five sections, in this order

• AbstractMust read, gives topic, method and main findings
• IntroductionGives relevance and main hypothesis
• Research MethodData collection method, operationalization, may be flawed
• ResultsAll the numbers and findings are here
• DiscussionFindings are put in perspective, given importance or nuances

In-Class Activity – Millennials and Citations

You are a teaching assistant in a local university. An 18 year-old first-year student has used the following source (next page) in a research paper. As you read the student’s work you notice one sentence that stands out. The tone and level of writing are much more academic than the rest. You check with the original, and it has obviously been copied word for word. In the second paragraph, there is a quote, which is perfectly attributed in APA style. You wonder if:

1. The student has plagiarized intentionally

1. The student does not know exactly how to cite

1. The student knows how to cite, but is struggling with the complexity of the content. He is trying to look smart.

1. The student is a “Millennial” who is used to a re-mix culture of Memes and Mash-Ups, where there is no need to identify sources.

You consider that learning how to write in Academic Voice is a learned skill, which takes time to acquire. You also consider that “sounding good” seems sometimes more important to young students, than writing “clearly.”

How would you grade the student?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What comment would you write the student, to help explain how to cite properly?

 

 

 

 

 

Student Text:

Does watching crime news on TV affect how you judge kids in your neighborhood? Actually, it might. You might think youth are more criminal than they actually are.  Questions regarding the impact of news coverage of juvenile crime stories have received increased attention in the literature and as part of a broader reform movement aimed at overhauling state juvenile justice systems.

According to media experts Goidel, Freeman and Procopio (2006), as “viewers watched more crime-related television, they were more likely to exaggerate realities of juvenile crime and juvenile justice.”

Original Source:

The Impact of Television Viewing on Perceptions of Juvenile Crime

By Robert K. Goidel, Craig M. Freeman, and Steven T. Procopio

Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media

March 2006, p. 119-131

 

ABSTRACT:

This article examines the relationship between television viewing and public perceptions of juvenile crime rates and the effectiveness of the juvenile justice system. Special attention was devoted to viewers of television news, and shows like Cops and America’s Most Wanted, where researchers expected a greater misperception of crime rates and the effectiveness of the criminal justice system. The results from the survey showed significant media effects on perceptions of juvenile crime and the effectiveness of the juvenile justice system in the expected direction. As viewers watched more crime-related television, they were more likely to exaggerate realities of juvenile crime and juvenile justice.

 

INTRODUCTION:

The news media’s coverage of crime has been extensively studied, although only recently has attention focused more narrowly on considerations of juvenile crime (Gilliam & Bales, 2003; Gilliam & Iyengar, 2005; Solar, 2001; Wilson, Colvin, & Smith, 2002). Adult crime dominates television news, but Yanich (1999) found that almost one third of the crime stories focused on juvenile crime, that most of these stories focused on violent crime (particularly murder), and that nearly 80% were covered in the first block of the newscast.

In a recent review, Dorfman and Schiraldi (2001) outlined four major findings related to news coverage of crime and their implications for juvenile crime: (a) News coverage of crime is not connected to actual crime rates and focuses largely on violent crime; (b) news coverage of crime is episodic, focusing on individual crimes as isolated events; (c) news coverage of crime connects race and crime, particularly violent crime and particularly on television; and (d) youth are rarely in the news, and when they are it is usually in the context of violence.

Here, the impact of television news and reality-based crime programming on perceptions of juvenile crime are considered. Questions regarding the impact of news coverage of juvenile crime stories have received increased attention in the literature and as part of a broader reform movement aimed at overhauling state juvenile justice systems (Cullen, Golden, & Cullen, 1983; Dorfman & Schiraldi, 2001; Gilliam & Bales, 2003; Gilliam & Iyengar, 2005; Mattinson & Mirrlees-Black, 2000). Although several studies have conducted content analyses of the portrayal of juvenile crime in local and network television news (Yanich, 1999), to date few studies have examined the effects of television news viewing on citizen attitudes toward juvenile justice.