00:00: Hello, and welcome to this special module on citation and referencing. In this session, we’ll be looking at why citation and referencing are essential in academic writing, as well as the meaning and different forms of citation and how to include citations in academic essays, projects, and reports.
00:36: So, let’s get started. Why citation and referencing? In academic writing, referencing and citation is all about acknowledgement. They both focus on acknowledging the work of authors, researchers from whom you have gotten or borrowed words, insights, ideas, facts, arguments, images used to write your answer.
01:08: As both are expected to be accurate, they help readers to verify, understand, and trace various sources, either published or unpublished, you have used or in quoting or refining in your writing. In sum, both concepts are associated with academic texts, serve as pointers to supporting evidence and information sources.
01:34: The best way to ensure your citations and referencing are accurate is to keep a good record of all the sources you have used in the course of reading and researching for any academic work and follow established rules. As students and professionals often use these two words interchangeably, so the next session clarifies this often misconstrued concept.
02:02: So, what is citation? The meaning, types, and how to include citations in your work. To start with, a citation implies making reference to source of information used in your research. So, anytime you quote directly, paraphrase, or summarise someone else’s idea in your work, then a citation should follow.
02:32: A citation is usually provided within the main body of the text, signalling the corresponding reference. It represents a vital way of making your writing persuasive and credible. You may wonder if citing sources won’t make your work to seem less original. Not at all. It will help readers to clearly distinguish your ideas from those of sources you have consulted, thereby establishing the originality of your work.
03:05: Format-wise, citation usually comprises the author’s surname and the year of publication. For a single author, e.g., Sesan (2020), and, this is the body of the essay, you mention the original author’s work and publication date. However, you need a page number and the author’s name when you are using a direct quote or having an image incorporated.
03:34: As for citations with up to three authors, last names should be listed, but when there are four or more authors, you need to state only the first author’s surname followed by “et al.,” as exemplified below. So, you have the number of authors – citation example. For one author, you have Sesan, 2024. For two authors, you have Sesan and Uduka 2024.
04:03: For three authors, you have Sesan, Uduka, Ugwu 2024. And for more than four authors, or three plus four and more authors, you have Sesan et al., 2024. Given that citation needs to be provided wherever it is most convenient to make sense of the text, let’s take a moment to talk about the two main types of in-text citations with example.
04:31: So, the first is integral citation, which entails having the author’s name at the beginning of the sentence to emphasise who made the statement or the information. E.g., “Kotler and Fox (2022) argue that students are the raw materials and graduates the product, and prospective employers are the customers.”
04:58: So, as evident above, this can be done using reporting verbs such as “argue,” “suggest,” “claim,” “point out,” “highlight,” etc., and having author’s name as part of the sentence while only the year go inside the parentheses. The second type is the non-integral citation. This involves not having the author’s name as part of the sentence, but coming at the end of it.
05:32: For example, “Students may be seen as raw materials, graduates as products, and prospective employers of the customer (Kotler and Fox, 2022)” inside the bracket. So, this can be seen as not interrupting the flow of text as it appears at the end of the sentence, with the author’s name not being part of the sentence and having both components inside the parentheses.
06:02: In sum, citation uses a name and date system that is usually provided in the body of the paper, while full details are usually given in the reference list at the end of the paper.