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Originally posted by DragonsDemesne He told me he was expecting roughly 3 times as many citations as I had. So I redid the citations, and by the end I had just over 50
I'm not blaming the professor at all, I'm criticizing the academic mentality in general in this regard. When I read nonfiction books or school textbooks, they certainly don't have citations every couple of sentences
but surely I shouldn't have to cite things that are obvious to anyone who has done ten minutes research on the transistor, like the date of invention (1947), the company the inventors worked for (Bell), the year they won the nobel prize (1956), that sort of thing[/qu0ote]
If you submited a paper with that info uncited to a journal, I'd guess that it might get accepted, since I've seen stuff like that. But if the teacher wants to make a point of how important citations are and how important it is to back up one's statements, well, good for him. The fact that you couldgo from 16 to 50 citations shows just how much information we normally take for granted there is.
Basically, I think the whole idea of citations is stupid, but that's just me
Why? Why is it a bad idea to back up what one says and provide a source so that people can check it?
Talk about over the top!
5 pages and three sources? Thats not over the top. I think its great that a school would require that of 1st grade students. They're certainly have to do a lot more than that before long.
Originally posted by sweatmonicaIdo
I totally agree. And I will also go ahead and say a principle is at stake here. To colleges, it seems like showing where you got the facts is more important than writing a thoughtful, informative essay.
DD: He told me he was expecting roughly 3 times as many citations as I had. So I redid the citations, and by the end I had just over 50
N: You mean you entered more information right??
DD: I'm not blaming the professor at all, I'm criticizing the academic mentality in general in this regard. When I read nonfiction books or school textbooks, they certainly don't have citations every couple of sentences
N: If you read technical and research papers you will see that they come pretty close to that.
DD: but surely I shouldn't have to cite things that are obvious to anyone who has done ten minutes research on the transistor, like the date of invention (1947), the company the inventors worked for (Bell), the year they won the nobel prize (1956), that sort of thing
N: If you submited a paper with that info uncited to a journal, I'd guess that it might get accepted, since I've seen stuff like that. But if the teacher wants to make a point of how important citations are and how important it is to back up one's statements, well, good for him. The fact that you couldgo from 16 to 50 citations shows just how much information we normally take for granted there is.
DD: Basically, I think the whole idea of citations is stupid, but that's just me
N: Why? Why is it a bad idea to back up what one says and provide a source so that people can check it?