Writing Citations

This is a continuation of your lesson in determining the basic elements of academic information seeking.

Last week, you were able to:

• Explain how ethical principles are observed in research writing
  
  

In this lesson, you will

• Value the importance of writing citations as a reflection of adhering to the principles of research ethics

• Follow guidelines in integrating primary and secondary resources

        Research ethics concerns the responsibility of researchers to be honest and respectful to all individuals who are affected by their research studies or their reports of the studies’ results. For research involving human or animal subjects, each institution or agency is required to establish a committee called an Institutional Review Board (IRB), which is composed of both scientists and nonscientists. In the Department of Education, student research works are reviewed by the Scientific Review Committee (SRC). Each year, all research entries to the conduct of National Science and Technology Fair are reviewed and approved by the SRC.  To give you an overview of the aspects being reviewed by the board, you may look into the most recent DepEd memorandum in the conduct of National Science and Technology Fair in DM_s2019_113.

          Ethical guidelines concerning subjects or participants are not the only ones being reviewed in a research work. Study the cartoon below. 

        Presenting portions of another’s work or data as your own, even if the other work or data source is cited occasionally in your paper, is an issue of ethical and scientific integrity. It is considered an act of fraud in the form of stealing someone else's work. In other words, it is plagiarism.

        University of Oxford (n.d.) defines plagiarism as "presenting someone else’s work or ideas as your own, with or without their consent, by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgement". Either done intentionally or unintentionally, it is against ethical standards and is at most times, punishable by law. Plagiarism can be committed in all published and unpublished material, whether in manuscript, printed or electronic form. 

    All of the following are considered plagiarism:

• turning in someone else's work as your own

• copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit

• failing to put a quotation in quotation marks

• giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation

• changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit

• copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not    

    Most cases of plagiarism can be avoided, however, by citing sources. Simply acknowledging that certain material has been borrowed and providing your audience with the information necessary to find that source is usually enough to prevent plagiarism.

Using and Integrating Sources in your Research 

There are different types of sources that you are to use when writing your paper: 

Source: Northcentral University Library. (2021)

Primary Sources

Primary resources contain first-hand information, meaning that you are reading the author’s own account on a specific topic or event that s/he participated in. Examples of primary resources include scholarly research articles, books, and diaries. Primary sources such as research articles often do not explain terminology and theoretical principles in detail. Thus, readers of primary scholarly research should have foundational knowledge of the subject area. Use primary resources to obtain a first-hand account to an actual event and identify original research done in a field. For many of your papers, use of primary resources will be a requirement.

Examples of a primary source are:

• Original documents such as diaries, speeches, manuscripts, letters, interviews, records, eyewitness accounts, autobiographies

• Empirical scholarly works such as research articles, clinical reports, case studies, dissertations

• Creative works such as poetry, music, video, photography

Secondary Sources

Secondary sources describe, summarize, or discuss information or details originally presented in another source; meaning the author, in most cases, did not participate in the event. This type of source is written for a broad audience and will include definitions of discipline specific terms, history relating to the topic, significant theories and principles, and summaries of major studies/events as related to the topic. Use secondary sources to obtain an overview of a topic and/or identify primary resources. Refrain from including such resources in an annotated bibliography for doctoral level work unless there is a good reason.

Examples of a secondary source are:

• Publications such as textbooks, magazine articles, book reviews, commentaries, encyclopedias, almanacs

    In research writing, primary sources are more credible as evidence, but good research uses both primary and secondary sources. Following are the ways on how you can integrate primary and secondary sources:

1. Direct Quotation

Directly quoting means typing one or two sentences verbatim (word for word) from a source. Set up direct quotations with phrases of your own to guide your flow of discussion.

Use quotation marks (") to set off directly quoted material from your own words, and either footnote or parenthetically document the work at the end of the sentence, using the research citation format your assignment requires.

REMEMBER:

• NO dropped quotations or quoting without proper context presented by your own thoughtful phrasing.

• NO traffic-jam quoting or choo-choo train quoting where several direct quotations are strung together, one after another, without discussion.

Example: 

In the article of Heydenrych and Prinsloo (2010), it was pointed out that “relying on technology would be foolish” (p 22). True enough, while technology could facilitate instruction and learning, we should also explore on the opportunities of seeking partnership with the local communities where the students are from. 

Note that in writing citations using direct quotations, the text being copied is placed inside quotation marks. You have to provide the name of the author(s), year of publication and the page number (if available).

2. Paraphrasing

A paraphrase is your "translation" of the source text into your own words. Unlike a summary, which is shorter than the original text, a paraphrase is about the same length. All texts outside the quotation marks means that those are your own original thoughts.

Example:

Knowing more about how distance education developed and progressed over time would make one more resilient and optimistic that this phase of what seems to be an abrupt change in response to the tough situation brought by the pandemic will get better than what it is at present. Such confidence is supported by the findings of Simonson et al. (2019) describing distance education to be as effective as other learning delivery modalities upon the observance of careful design, development and delivery of course of learning along with adequate support systems for the learners. 

    Note that in writing citations using paraphrasing, there is no longer quotation marks present but still, you have to provide the name of the author(s), year of publication and the page number (if available).

3. Summarizing

A summary condenses the ideas in a source text into a brief version. Unlike a paraphrase, which is about as long as the source text, a summary is shorter in length.

The APA Research Citation Style

There are several types of research citation styles like the Chicago-Turabian Style and the MLA (Modern Language Association), but in the existing guidelines in research writing issued by the National Science and Technology Fair Scientific Review Committee, we in DepEd are suggested to make use of the APA  (American Psychological Association) format.

• APA sources are generally documented by parenthetical author-date-page number citations within the text.

Example:

According to a writer, "it is very important to learn how to cite using the APA style" (Watson, 2007, p.22).

or

Watson (2007) explained that "it is very important to learn how to cite using the APA style" (p. 22).

• APA sources listed in reference list (Bibliography) differs according to type of sources. This will be further discussed in our next lesson (week 7). But please do check the general guidelines in advance. You can find the APA 7th edition guide using the following links:

University of New Castle Library 

Purdue Online Writing Lab 

Note Taking

    Taking notes helps you concentrate on the most valuable ideas in the topic that you are working on. Taking notes help you make sense of the text you have read or words you have heard. Notes help you to maintain a permanent record of what you have read or listened to and in a lot of ways, help you avoid committing plagiarism since you'll keep source of information clearly distinct from your original thoughts. 

When taking notes, be sure to cite your sources carefully to include:

• the name of the author (s)

• title of the document

• page numbers (if available)

• name of publisher

• publication date

Some Note-taking Methods

• typing notes on the computer

• using note cards (like index cards)

• handwriting notes in a research journal (like the ones you will use from the time you will start conceptualizing your research proposal)