WikiInfoLit Unit 2 Page 2
Importance of Acknowledging Where Information Comes From
Many students resist giving their time and attention to the task of citing their sources. They seem to consider it finicky busy work. And this is despite all the effort we put in to explaining its importance. When students do pay attention to citing sources, they seem to fill up their bibliography in order to show their instructor that they used "enough" information sources and "good enough" information sources. They see citations as an academic ritual of passing muster.
Watch Citing Sources by BrainPop!, a tutorial intended for elementary students. If you assign research projects that involve citing sources to your high school or college students, you may have told them similar things.
Questions For Reflection
You do not need to post your answers to questions for reflection. However, for your own benefit, I recommend that you write it out as if you were communicating your ideas to someone else. If you do want to post your answers, post them to the WikiInfoLit Google Group under Unit 2, General Discussion
- In your own words, summarize the two main reasons the BrainPop! tutorial gives for needing to cite your sources.
- Look back to your own college and grad school experience. When was the first time it occurred to you to go through a bibliography for more articles to read?
- When was the first time you looked at a footnote and it occurred to you that practically all your articles were citing a particular older article, so maybe you should read it? Now explain this third reason why you have to cite your sources, as if you were explaining it to the BrainPop! audience of elementary students.
So we have concluded that there are three main reasons why citing sources is important:
- To give credit where credit is due and avoid plagiarism.
- To give weight to what we are saying by backing it up with the facts and ideas from others who are experts in the subject we're talking about.
- To give our audience a way to find out where we got our facts ideas, and examine the sources of those facts and ideas for themselves.