Research and Citations

Having just graduated with my master's degree, I'd like to think I'm pretty good at research.  Afterall, I wrote numerous papers during my three years of graduate school including the dreaded Capstone experience where I had to write three major papers - all with proper citations - in the course of one week.  In college, we were required to use APA source citations, but I think most middle and high schools use MLA format.  Regardless of the format used, citing sources is a difficult task for most students.  It's hard enough to remember to write down the details of each website used, book accessed, etc.  It wouldn't be so bad if we just had to write down the name of the book or website, but most source citations require many more details.    Not only that, sometimes it is hard to find all the information required.  Many websites don't have an obvious author and the date the site was published can be difficult to discern.  On top of everything else, MLA format wants them in a particular order with proper punctuation.

One of the great things about today's source citations is that most no longer require complete URL addresses.  I think they figured out that some URLs are very long and separating them into two lines can be complex in addition to the fact that many sites simply aren't static.  The link that worked last week may not work this week due to site updates and such.  So we at least don't have to write down the lengthy URLs, but how do we help students get the information needed?

First we have to demonstrate.  If the information is from a book, we need to show students where to find the publication information that is usually on the back of the title page.  If it is from a website, we have to show them how to dig a little to find an author.  This can turn into a lesson on credibility of the website.  When it is difficult to find the person or organization responsible for the information on a site, one should be a little leery of its information.  For each type of source, we need to show examples and the proper format. 

In world where copy and paste is king, I'm a big fan of having students hand write their notes.  At this point, it is important to teach students the difference between direct quotations (copying something word for word) and summarizing or paraphrasing information.  Using index cards is a great way to keep track of information, but making sure that students also get the source citation information may be difficult.  For me, I prefer a little more hand-holding (at least at the middle school level) by providing fill in the blank source citation cards for notes.  I created notecards printed on a full sheet of paper that can be cut into quarters for research.  They can be printed on cardstock but paper also works.  So far I have cards for book, web, and the online World Book Encyclopedia student edition, but will add more for other types of sources later.  The example below shows 1/4 of a page of the book card.

Using these cards serves multiple purposes.  First, the source information is written down before getting any information.  Writing information on a smaller card instead of a full sheet of paper forces students to get the important points rather than trying to copy every single thing down.  Of course these types of cards would be used for ongoing research - potentially from multiple sources.  I think mini-research projects such as those presented at the ESC Region 20 Library Roundup by Linda Holder this past year are also a great way to go.   I think the important aspect is to get students used to the concept that we must always give credit to our sources, and writing down this information again and again will help them figure this out.