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COM 3401Dr. LeeAbout CitationsThis document tries to answer some frequently asked questions about citing. All outside information you get (from the webpages, tweets, status updates, newspapers, books, videos, etc.) must be cited. Anything less than correct citation is considered plagiarism.Here are some instructions about the proper way to cite sources. I prefer that you use the APA format (APA stands for the American Psychological Association.) Everything you need to know for citing and formatting in APA style can be found at the OWL at Perdue University website: additional information, please see Quick Citation Guide on BB. For your final presentation, you are required to cite information in three places: In-text; on a Works Cited Section at the end of your outline; and out loud as you give your speech. Definitions of these terms follow: 1) In-text citations: After every single fact you include on your speaking outline you must include the author’s last name and the year they said it. Place the name and year in parentheses immediately after your sentence stating a fact. For example: According to an article in Journal of the Inclusive Museum, science center exhibits can be persuasive as well as informative (Lee, 2013). In-text citations allow the reader to turn to your “Works Cited” section at the end of your outline and look up more detailed information about the citation. If your speech contains multiple facts from the same source, you need to place the author and year after each one. 2) Works Cited: Also called a Bibliography or References section, this is a section at the end of your outline. Under the heading “Works Cited” you need to place detailed information about each of the references you cited in your In-text citations. The authors must be listed in alphabetical order. Each citation must include the following information: The author’s last name; first initial; the year of publication; the title of the article, webpage or book chapter, the title of the news journal or website (in italics); the day and month of publication; the volume and issue of the journal or periodical; and the URL (uniform resource locator or web address). Here is an example of a full citation in APA format:Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of Online Periodical, volume number (issue number if available). Retrieved from another example:Lee, David H., Steier, Frederick & Ostrenko, Wit (2013). Entertaining, informing, and persuading: Figures of speech to prepare for health and safety. The International Journal of the Inclusive Museum. 6, 1. Retrieved from) Citing verbally within your oral presentation: When you state an interesting fact in your speech, you should tell the listeners out loud where you got your information. This is a way of providing credibility. Instead of saying:“There are almost 24 thousand kids sleeping in homeless shelters in NYC”You should say:“There are almost 24 thousand kids sleeping in homeless shelters in NYC, according to the Coalition for the Homeless.” By citing your source verbally within your speech, you are showing the audience that you have done some research and this strengthens your argument. Commonly asked questions about citations:What’s the point of citations?Plagiarism, or the unattributed use of someone else’s words and ideas, has always been a problem in academia, but it has become far easier and more widespread in the internet age. Students will often copy> paste from the web and not acknowledge it, thereby passing it off as their own individual ideas. At the same time, it has become easier to catch someone doing it as well. If you copy the work and ideas of another you are taking credit for the ideas of others and passing them off as your own. Plagiarizing is a serious academic offense that hurts you, your peers, your Professor and your institution. It is punishable by failing grades, being dropped from a course, expulsion or other penalties. Note that plagiarism can be done accidentally when a student may not know the rules about properly citing their sources, but they are still culpable for plagiarizing! “But I didn’t know!” is not an excuse!But Professor So and So doesn’t make me cite things!I’m not Professor So and So. You should still cite everything. City Tech is changing and the administration is expecting more rigor from the faculty and students.But I read tons of news articles/ blogs that don’t cite sources!That’s for journalism. This is academia where we cite everything.Do I really need to cite everything? The short answer is, yes! However, there are some facts that are “common knowledge” that do not need to be cited. For example “the sky is blue” or “sugar is sweet.” If you have any doubt about what is considered common knowledge, please check with me.Is there any other kind of things I don’t need to cite?Yes, things that you have experienced first-hand. For example, it is a fact that I cook amazing lasagna, but I wouldn’t need to cite that fact on a speech. Your final presentations require you to share personal experiences with work and school, but these don’t need to be cited and do not count among your three sources.Can’t I just stick with my own experience and common knowledge things so I don’t have to cite?No. The final presentation requires a minimum of three (3) sources but no more than five (5). These sources have to come from outside sources, such as websites, news articles, books and academic journals. My speech is a demonstration of architectural model building that I learned from school. How can I cite that?In cases like these, you need to do some outside research about architectural model building and cite that in order to meet source requirements.What about a fact that I learned in another course? It must be cited. You may cite the textbook from the class. Or, if that is not available you can search for the fact you are looking for on google or at the library and locate a credible source to cite.I use a different style of citation. Do I have to do it like you?The answer is, no, you don’t. There are many different “styles” of citation besides APA. (MLA, Chicago, etc.) Just check with me, first. Can I use Easy Bib or some other citation tool?Yes, you can, as long as you include all of the following information in your Works Cited Section: Author, date, Title of Article, Title of Source, Page Numbers (if available) and URL.Do I really need to type out the whole URL?No. You can copy and paste it. In your web browser, click on the link in your address bar so that it turns blue. Then right click and copy the link. Then go to your Word document and paste it there where you need it in the Works Cited.What about something my Grandma told me?It still needs to be cited. Often your grandma may have told you something that was said elsewhere. In that case, search for the fact online or at the library and cite that. However, if your grandma is telling you something unique that happened to her, you may cite it as personal communication. Personal communication can be cited “in-text” and does not need to appear in your “Works Cited” section. Here is an example:My grandma told me that she took the train to Manhattan every day for work (E. Jones, personal communication, September 4, 2015).What if my source does not have an author?It is preferable to find sources with authors. Good sources with authors include books, articles in academic journals, newspapers, magazines and many news stories that appear online. With that said, there are many legit sources of information that do not have authors listed. Examples include some webpages, newswires (such as Associated Press) and government documents. In cases where the author is not listed, you may cite the title of the webpage (or print document). Here is an example of a news story that does not have an author (about miners in Chile who were rescued). The reference in your “Works Cited” section will look like this.All 33 Chile miners freed in flawless rescue. (2010, October 13). Retrieved from how this citation leads with the title of the article. But you are not finished citing it yet. You also have to put an “in-text” citation immediately after you put this fact in your outline. Your in-text citation will have the first few words of the title in quotation marks. Because this article does not list an author, your in-text citation will look like this:According to MSNBC, all the miners survived (“All 33 Chile miners…” 2010).Notice how I used only the first 3 words of the title of the article. This is fine, because the complete title will appear in the Works Cited section at the end of your outline. List the source alphabetically by the first word of the article. In the case of “corporate authorship” such as governmental documents or briefings issued by organizations, you can cite the name of the institution that is issuing the information. For example: American Medical Association (2004). American Medical Association family medical guide (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.The above example is from a book. What about a webpage of an organization or government agency? In that case you cite the name of the organization, year, title of webpage and URL:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2010).?Nutrition. Retrieved from is no date listed on my source. What do I do?First of all, look at the source very closely. Sometimes the date is listed at the bottom of the page. Sometimes the footer of the website contains a copyright symbol with a year. If nothing else is available, you can use that. Sometimes the date of news articles appears in the URL. If you still can’t find the date, you can use the initials “n.d.” which stand for “no date.”Gosh, this seems so complicated. Can you please summarize the most important points?Sure! Good idea. I don’t expect you to get the hang of all of it right away. So here are some of the main points you need to know:Summary1) Citation means acknowledging the sources of the information you use to make your speech.2) All information that you find (on the web, from books, etc.) must be cited.3) The point of citation is to show you are not ripping other people off. 4) Plagiarism of any kind, even accidental, is strictly forbidden. Offenders will receive and F on that assignment for the first event. If it happens again, the student will receive an F for the entire course and will be reported to the NYCCT Office of Student Affairs.5) You are required to cite three sources in three places. In-text, in the Works Cited section, and out loud while you are speaking.6) The source, as listed in the Works Cited section, must include: Author’s name; year that the article appeared; title of the article, and webpage (URL). 7) The reason you include all of this detail is so that the Prof. can look up your sources and check them.Those are the main things you should remember. I still don’t understand. Can you answer some more questions?Yes! Questions help the learning process, and asking questions shows that you are following along. There are hardly any wrong questions. Keep Asking!dlee@citytech.cuny.edu ................
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