Giving Shout-Outs
Misunderstood Activity
Students don’t always understand or see the need to provide in-text citations in the body of their work. Some think including a list of references or links at the end of a paper or presentation is sufficient. To help students understand the importance of including in-text citations, one could create an analogy that reminds students of a time when they didn’t get credit for something they did.
Analogy Example
Have you ever had someone receive or take credit for something you did? Maybe it happened at home, school, or work. How did you feel? Angry? Annoyed? Disappointed? Invisible?
You expect and deserve credit for your accomplishments; others expect and deserve credit for theirs. So, give credit, but don’t just wait until the reference section to do so. Use in-text citations in the body of your work to acknowledge the work of others. Think of in-text citations like shout-outs. Like shout-outs, in-text citations draw attention right away to those that deserve recognition. By including in-text citations in your assignments, you are acknowledging someone else’s hard work and accomplishments in the same way you desire to be acknowledged for yours.
Reflection
There are so many ways one could describe the need for in-text citations. I think finding the right analogy has a lot to do with the audience. What might resonate with one group of students, might not resonate with another. Hopefully, instructing students to think about a time when someone else took or received credit for something they did requires them to make connections and see researchers as people instead of just names on a page. Encouraging students to think about in-text citations as shout-outs might help some students appreciate what in-text citations are and why they are used.
TweetExample for "Giving Shout-Outs":
https://bank.ecampusontario.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Misunderstood-Activity-1.docx
Leave a Reply