Why are citations needed Dont citations reduce the

Why are citations needed? • Don’t citations reduce the originality of my writing and thinking? • Isn’t it boring to have my text interrupted by references to some article? • ‘My text should be new and original – not a repetition of what someone else has said. ’ • Who cares anyway?

• Is it just because my professors want to be able to check up on my reading? • Aren’t citations just a ‘funny academic convention’, and useless? • Is it to show (to brag about) how much I’ve read?

NO!

Citations in academia … • Create a basis for the new information you will be giving. • Link your ideas to what your readers know. • Create a ‘research space’. • Have a rhetorical function: persuade the reader

Citations also inform your reader about YOU: They. . . • show what kind of literature, and how much you have read; • demonstrate that you know what is shared knowledge, or what you feel needs explanation / confirmation; • give your reader the chance to check what you say: Is it true? Have you interpreted it correctly? • help your reader to learn more about the topic.

Citations position you. They. . . • show that you are honest and open; • create a link between you and others who work on the same topic area.

2 ways of citing in text: References integrated into sentences (’integral’): “As Boden (2015) highlights / points out / suggests, … Clifton (2016 a) is one of the few studies which … Clifton et al (2014) argue that… According to Clifton and Stubbs (2013: 216), “This bottom-up, data-drivenapproach” … is …”

References NOT integrated into sentences; separated by brackets from the rest of the sentence As a result, context becomes a dynamic entity, with ongoing negotiation in interaction (Boden, 1999). There are numerous studies dealing with questions of ‘best practice’ in performance appraisal interviews (eg Allen, 2000; Grote, 2005; Losyk, 2012; Mikkelsen, 2016).

OK, BUT … • Do all these periods, commas, semicolons, typos etc matter? YES! – Reader expectations matter • Readability matters • Consistency matters. Thik of whqat its lke to red a tet that ful of typos… OK?