Is three citations per paragraph excessive for undergraduate research paper? [on hold]
I've had a teacher tell me that I needed to have 3 citations per paragraph in my paper. The paper is to be 20 pages long. Is this level of citation (over 200 individual in-text citations in the paper) too much for undergraduate work? The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.
citations
New contributor
put on hold as off-topic by cag51, corey979, user3209815, David Z, virmaior 22 hours ago
This question appears to be off-topic. The users who voted to close gave this specific reason:
- "The answer to this question strongly depends on individual factors such as a certain person’s preferences, a given institution’s regulations, the exact contents of your work or your personal values. Thus only someone familiar can answer this question and it cannot be generalised to apply to others. (See this discussion for more info.)" – David Z, virmaior
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I've had a teacher tell me that I needed to have 3 citations per paragraph in my paper. The paper is to be 20 pages long. Is this level of citation (over 200 individual in-text citations in the paper) too much for undergraduate work? The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.
citations
New contributor
put on hold as off-topic by cag51, corey979, user3209815, David Z, virmaior 22 hours ago
This question appears to be off-topic. The users who voted to close gave this specific reason:
- "The answer to this question strongly depends on individual factors such as a certain person’s preferences, a given institution’s regulations, the exact contents of your work or your personal values. Thus only someone familiar can answer this question and it cannot be generalised to apply to others. (See this discussion for more info.)" – David Z, virmaior
If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.
16
What field is this? What type of paper? Does she mean 200 unique references or 200 citations? Please add more detail.
– Azor Ahai
2 days ago
25
Why are you asking us rather than the instructor? You are not even clear on what the instructor is actually requiring. Obviously 3 citations for every single paragraph in a 20 page paper seems high, but without the context, we can't say more than that (and our opinions don't matter in any case).
– cag51
2 days ago
by default, do what instructor say, show them example of your work, then adjust
– aaaaaa
2 days ago
How many words is "20 pages"? FWIW I made just over 200 citations in a 14K word thesis.
– curiousdannii
yesterday
1
@curiousdannii a fair comparison is probably the number of citations in your literature review/introduction since that is closer to a term paper format.
– StrongBad♦
yesterday
|
show 2 more comments
I've had a teacher tell me that I needed to have 3 citations per paragraph in my paper. The paper is to be 20 pages long. Is this level of citation (over 200 individual in-text citations in the paper) too much for undergraduate work? The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.
citations
New contributor
I've had a teacher tell me that I needed to have 3 citations per paragraph in my paper. The paper is to be 20 pages long. Is this level of citation (over 200 individual in-text citations in the paper) too much for undergraduate work? The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.
citations
citations
New contributor
New contributor
edited 2 days ago
Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog
New contributor
asked 2 days ago
Nathan Eggers Techno Tech BlogNathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog
3513
3513
New contributor
New contributor
put on hold as off-topic by cag51, corey979, user3209815, David Z, virmaior 22 hours ago
This question appears to be off-topic. The users who voted to close gave this specific reason:
- "The answer to this question strongly depends on individual factors such as a certain person’s preferences, a given institution’s regulations, the exact contents of your work or your personal values. Thus only someone familiar can answer this question and it cannot be generalised to apply to others. (See this discussion for more info.)" – David Z, virmaior
If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.
put on hold as off-topic by cag51, corey979, user3209815, David Z, virmaior 22 hours ago
This question appears to be off-topic. The users who voted to close gave this specific reason:
- "The answer to this question strongly depends on individual factors such as a certain person’s preferences, a given institution’s regulations, the exact contents of your work or your personal values. Thus only someone familiar can answer this question and it cannot be generalised to apply to others. (See this discussion for more info.)" – David Z, virmaior
If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.
16
What field is this? What type of paper? Does she mean 200 unique references or 200 citations? Please add more detail.
– Azor Ahai
2 days ago
25
Why are you asking us rather than the instructor? You are not even clear on what the instructor is actually requiring. Obviously 3 citations for every single paragraph in a 20 page paper seems high, but without the context, we can't say more than that (and our opinions don't matter in any case).
– cag51
2 days ago
by default, do what instructor say, show them example of your work, then adjust
– aaaaaa
2 days ago
How many words is "20 pages"? FWIW I made just over 200 citations in a 14K word thesis.
– curiousdannii
yesterday
1
@curiousdannii a fair comparison is probably the number of citations in your literature review/introduction since that is closer to a term paper format.
– StrongBad♦
yesterday
|
show 2 more comments
16
What field is this? What type of paper? Does she mean 200 unique references or 200 citations? Please add more detail.
– Azor Ahai
2 days ago
25
Why are you asking us rather than the instructor? You are not even clear on what the instructor is actually requiring. Obviously 3 citations for every single paragraph in a 20 page paper seems high, but without the context, we can't say more than that (and our opinions don't matter in any case).
– cag51
2 days ago
by default, do what instructor say, show them example of your work, then adjust
– aaaaaa
2 days ago
How many words is "20 pages"? FWIW I made just over 200 citations in a 14K word thesis.
– curiousdannii
yesterday
1
@curiousdannii a fair comparison is probably the number of citations in your literature review/introduction since that is closer to a term paper format.
– StrongBad♦
yesterday
16
16
What field is this? What type of paper? Does she mean 200 unique references or 200 citations? Please add more detail.
– Azor Ahai
2 days ago
What field is this? What type of paper? Does she mean 200 unique references or 200 citations? Please add more detail.
– Azor Ahai
2 days ago
25
25
Why are you asking us rather than the instructor? You are not even clear on what the instructor is actually requiring. Obviously 3 citations for every single paragraph in a 20 page paper seems high, but without the context, we can't say more than that (and our opinions don't matter in any case).
– cag51
2 days ago
Why are you asking us rather than the instructor? You are not even clear on what the instructor is actually requiring. Obviously 3 citations for every single paragraph in a 20 page paper seems high, but without the context, we can't say more than that (and our opinions don't matter in any case).
– cag51
2 days ago
by default, do what instructor say, show them example of your work, then adjust
– aaaaaa
2 days ago
by default, do what instructor say, show them example of your work, then adjust
– aaaaaa
2 days ago
How many words is "20 pages"? FWIW I made just over 200 citations in a 14K word thesis.
– curiousdannii
yesterday
How many words is "20 pages"? FWIW I made just over 200 citations in a 14K word thesis.
– curiousdannii
yesterday
1
1
@curiousdannii a fair comparison is probably the number of citations in your literature review/introduction since that is closer to a term paper format.
– StrongBad♦
yesterday
@curiousdannii a fair comparison is probably the number of citations in your literature review/introduction since that is closer to a term paper format.
– StrongBad♦
yesterday
|
show 2 more comments
5 Answers
5
active
oldest
votes
If you are asking whether it is a general "best practice" for a research paper at any level to have three citations per paragraph: no, it is not. In any level research paper, you should cite as often (equivalently, as little) as necessary in order to inform the reader of relevant prior work. If seven papers are relevant to what you are saying in a given sentence, you should cite those seven papers. If in a paragraph you are not saying anything that makes reference to or would be aided by making reference to prior literature, then there should be no citations in the paragraph. You never insert citations to meet numerical requirements.
However, this is an assignment for a course, so the best practice is whatever your instructor told you.
The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.
No, you can ask your instructor which of the above is what she wants. I encourage you to do so.
1
This is true for professional-level work, but undergraduate term papers don't generally include contextualization in the literature because they don't generally make new contributions to the field.
– Elizabeth Henning
2 days ago
3
@ElizabethHenning Even if you don't add anything new, isn't it still good to provide context?
– JAB
2 days ago
8
@JAB Of course, but advice like "three citations per paragraph" leads me to believe that the OP is a Writing 101 course where the assignment is to do independent reading on a topic and then write it up in an "academic style" with citations back to the source material. This is very different from a survey paper or doing original research and providing citations in a lit review.
– Elizabeth Henning
2 days ago
add a comment |
Yes and no. This is highly field dependent. Here are two examples:
Mastering Chess and Shogi by Self-Play with a
General Reinforcement Learning Algorithm. This is an artificial intelligence paper about creating a neural network engine that plays Chess & Shogi better than conventional engines. Notice that it starts by citing a lot of previous articles in the introduction, but by the time it goes into detail about how AlphaZero is created and trained, there are much fewer citations. This is natural: after all, the authors are doing something that hasn't been done before, so one cannot expect there to be references.Princes’ Wars, Wars of the People, or Total War? Mass Armies and the Question of a Military Revolution in Germany, 1792–1815. Here we have a history paper about Germany during the Napoleonic wars. Now we see citations everywhere. The entire paper is filled with it, almost uniformly. Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to find a paragraph that doesn't have three citations.
Since expectations vary by field, the answer to your question is also going to depend on your field. But there's an easy shortcut: since your lecturer is requesting 3 citations a paper, you are probably in a field more akin to history and less to artificial intelligence. In that case, three citations per paragraph is not excessive, and you should conform to the field's standards.
Nice examples! (I don't have access the the second paper, but what you said about it definitely seems reasonable to me.)
– Dave L Renfro
yesterday
@DaveLRenfro good point, switching to an OA article.
– Allure
yesterday
add a comment |
Trying to get the people here between you and your instructor will annoy her even more. Whether it is excessive or not, it is her requirements that matter.
But I'll just guess that she wants to push you a bit to give you good habits of backing up everything you say in your paper using the available literature. She probably also wants you to do a lot of literature searching.
Treat it as something like a "wind-sprint" ordered by a football coach to give you endurance and prepare you for the big game. As Nike said: Just. Do. It.
I don't plan on using anything here against anyone. I just want to get a basic feel for what's generally expected. Her style of communication isn't the clearest, and I'm expecting that this is one of her many sins of omission.
– Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog
2 days ago
As much as I agree with this answer and respect your intent, I think you need to balance following a specific instructor's rule of thumb with truly understanding what a citation is and when you should use it. Forcing yourself to generate three improper or artificial citations per paragraph is different than writing paragraphs that inherently have three legitimate citations each.
– dwizum
yesterday
Consider an analogy: if you're a building contractor putting up houses in a development, and the developer tells you "every house must have three staircases!" you should probably make sure you're not slapping three staircases to nowhere in a bunch of one-story houses.
– dwizum
yesterday
1
Actually, @dwizum, wouldn't a wise contractor try to figure out the real intent and satisfy it intelligently? Should a wise student do less? I hope the OP doesn't conclude that artificial citations are "going for the win". (Actually, at one point in my early educations I was a "smart ass" student myself though. Parent-teacher conference resulted, of course.)
– Buffy
yesterday
Yes agreed - I guess my point was, if the instructor is requiring three per paragraph, then yes - do three - but also, make sure you're understanding what a citation is for, and using them appropriately. I think in the end we're saying the same thing.
– dwizum
yesterday
add a comment |
First of all, the number of citations needed doesn't have anything to do with whether it's undergraduate work or a professional article. My guess from what little you've said is that she gave you a rule of thumb that you're taking too literally.
Citations are used to support a statement you make with an authoritative source, since presumably you aren't an authority. Three citations per paragraph would mean that you are synthesizing a variety of sources and not relying on any one source for long chunks of text, which could border on plagiarism. As long as you are making good use of multiple sources and citing them properly, I doubt that she is going to count the exact number of citations per paragraph.
2
Hmmm. On the other hand, reasonable as it sounds, you won't be the one with the marking pen.
– Buffy
2 days ago
add a comment |
I am sure this is somewhat field dependent, but 3 citations per paragraph seems like perfectly reasonable advice to give. In terms of general advice, paragraphs have 5 sentences (yes sometimes they have more and sometimes they have less, but we are talking in generalities). The first sentence is a topic sentence and the last is a concluding sentence. These should be (to continue with the sweeping generalities) original ideas that do not require citations. The other 3 sentences are you supporting arguments and should each have a reference (possibly to multiple works).
When you extrapolate this out to a 20 page paper, there might be 40 5-sentence paragraphs. The first paragraph and the last paragraph may not have citations also (as again they are the original ideas). Finally, some works would be cited in multiple places. That might put the total number of unique references in a 20 page paper at around 80-100. I don't think I have ever seen an undergraduate paper get to that number, but I also write citation needed an awful lot.
add a comment |
5 Answers
5
active
oldest
votes
5 Answers
5
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
If you are asking whether it is a general "best practice" for a research paper at any level to have three citations per paragraph: no, it is not. In any level research paper, you should cite as often (equivalently, as little) as necessary in order to inform the reader of relevant prior work. If seven papers are relevant to what you are saying in a given sentence, you should cite those seven papers. If in a paragraph you are not saying anything that makes reference to or would be aided by making reference to prior literature, then there should be no citations in the paragraph. You never insert citations to meet numerical requirements.
However, this is an assignment for a course, so the best practice is whatever your instructor told you.
The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.
No, you can ask your instructor which of the above is what she wants. I encourage you to do so.
1
This is true for professional-level work, but undergraduate term papers don't generally include contextualization in the literature because they don't generally make new contributions to the field.
– Elizabeth Henning
2 days ago
3
@ElizabethHenning Even if you don't add anything new, isn't it still good to provide context?
– JAB
2 days ago
8
@JAB Of course, but advice like "three citations per paragraph" leads me to believe that the OP is a Writing 101 course where the assignment is to do independent reading on a topic and then write it up in an "academic style" with citations back to the source material. This is very different from a survey paper or doing original research and providing citations in a lit review.
– Elizabeth Henning
2 days ago
add a comment |
If you are asking whether it is a general "best practice" for a research paper at any level to have three citations per paragraph: no, it is not. In any level research paper, you should cite as often (equivalently, as little) as necessary in order to inform the reader of relevant prior work. If seven papers are relevant to what you are saying in a given sentence, you should cite those seven papers. If in a paragraph you are not saying anything that makes reference to or would be aided by making reference to prior literature, then there should be no citations in the paragraph. You never insert citations to meet numerical requirements.
However, this is an assignment for a course, so the best practice is whatever your instructor told you.
The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.
No, you can ask your instructor which of the above is what she wants. I encourage you to do so.
1
This is true for professional-level work, but undergraduate term papers don't generally include contextualization in the literature because they don't generally make new contributions to the field.
– Elizabeth Henning
2 days ago
3
@ElizabethHenning Even if you don't add anything new, isn't it still good to provide context?
– JAB
2 days ago
8
@JAB Of course, but advice like "three citations per paragraph" leads me to believe that the OP is a Writing 101 course where the assignment is to do independent reading on a topic and then write it up in an "academic style" with citations back to the source material. This is very different from a survey paper or doing original research and providing citations in a lit review.
– Elizabeth Henning
2 days ago
add a comment |
If you are asking whether it is a general "best practice" for a research paper at any level to have three citations per paragraph: no, it is not. In any level research paper, you should cite as often (equivalently, as little) as necessary in order to inform the reader of relevant prior work. If seven papers are relevant to what you are saying in a given sentence, you should cite those seven papers. If in a paragraph you are not saying anything that makes reference to or would be aided by making reference to prior literature, then there should be no citations in the paragraph. You never insert citations to meet numerical requirements.
However, this is an assignment for a course, so the best practice is whatever your instructor told you.
The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.
No, you can ask your instructor which of the above is what she wants. I encourage you to do so.
If you are asking whether it is a general "best practice" for a research paper at any level to have three citations per paragraph: no, it is not. In any level research paper, you should cite as often (equivalently, as little) as necessary in order to inform the reader of relevant prior work. If seven papers are relevant to what you are saying in a given sentence, you should cite those seven papers. If in a paragraph you are not saying anything that makes reference to or would be aided by making reference to prior literature, then there should be no citations in the paragraph. You never insert citations to meet numerical requirements.
However, this is an assignment for a course, so the best practice is whatever your instructor told you.
The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.
No, you can ask your instructor which of the above is what she wants. I encourage you to do so.
edited 2 days ago
answered 2 days ago
Pete L. ClarkPete L. Clark
117k23317476
117k23317476
1
This is true for professional-level work, but undergraduate term papers don't generally include contextualization in the literature because they don't generally make new contributions to the field.
– Elizabeth Henning
2 days ago
3
@ElizabethHenning Even if you don't add anything new, isn't it still good to provide context?
– JAB
2 days ago
8
@JAB Of course, but advice like "three citations per paragraph" leads me to believe that the OP is a Writing 101 course where the assignment is to do independent reading on a topic and then write it up in an "academic style" with citations back to the source material. This is very different from a survey paper or doing original research and providing citations in a lit review.
– Elizabeth Henning
2 days ago
add a comment |
1
This is true for professional-level work, but undergraduate term papers don't generally include contextualization in the literature because they don't generally make new contributions to the field.
– Elizabeth Henning
2 days ago
3
@ElizabethHenning Even if you don't add anything new, isn't it still good to provide context?
– JAB
2 days ago
8
@JAB Of course, but advice like "three citations per paragraph" leads me to believe that the OP is a Writing 101 course where the assignment is to do independent reading on a topic and then write it up in an "academic style" with citations back to the source material. This is very different from a survey paper or doing original research and providing citations in a lit review.
– Elizabeth Henning
2 days ago
1
1
This is true for professional-level work, but undergraduate term papers don't generally include contextualization in the literature because they don't generally make new contributions to the field.
– Elizabeth Henning
2 days ago
This is true for professional-level work, but undergraduate term papers don't generally include contextualization in the literature because they don't generally make new contributions to the field.
– Elizabeth Henning
2 days ago
3
3
@ElizabethHenning Even if you don't add anything new, isn't it still good to provide context?
– JAB
2 days ago
@ElizabethHenning Even if you don't add anything new, isn't it still good to provide context?
– JAB
2 days ago
8
8
@JAB Of course, but advice like "three citations per paragraph" leads me to believe that the OP is a Writing 101 course where the assignment is to do independent reading on a topic and then write it up in an "academic style" with citations back to the source material. This is very different from a survey paper or doing original research and providing citations in a lit review.
– Elizabeth Henning
2 days ago
@JAB Of course, but advice like "three citations per paragraph" leads me to believe that the OP is a Writing 101 course where the assignment is to do independent reading on a topic and then write it up in an "academic style" with citations back to the source material. This is very different from a survey paper or doing original research and providing citations in a lit review.
– Elizabeth Henning
2 days ago
add a comment |
Yes and no. This is highly field dependent. Here are two examples:
Mastering Chess and Shogi by Self-Play with a
General Reinforcement Learning Algorithm. This is an artificial intelligence paper about creating a neural network engine that plays Chess & Shogi better than conventional engines. Notice that it starts by citing a lot of previous articles in the introduction, but by the time it goes into detail about how AlphaZero is created and trained, there are much fewer citations. This is natural: after all, the authors are doing something that hasn't been done before, so one cannot expect there to be references.Princes’ Wars, Wars of the People, or Total War? Mass Armies and the Question of a Military Revolution in Germany, 1792–1815. Here we have a history paper about Germany during the Napoleonic wars. Now we see citations everywhere. The entire paper is filled with it, almost uniformly. Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to find a paragraph that doesn't have three citations.
Since expectations vary by field, the answer to your question is also going to depend on your field. But there's an easy shortcut: since your lecturer is requesting 3 citations a paper, you are probably in a field more akin to history and less to artificial intelligence. In that case, three citations per paragraph is not excessive, and you should conform to the field's standards.
Nice examples! (I don't have access the the second paper, but what you said about it definitely seems reasonable to me.)
– Dave L Renfro
yesterday
@DaveLRenfro good point, switching to an OA article.
– Allure
yesterday
add a comment |
Yes and no. This is highly field dependent. Here are two examples:
Mastering Chess and Shogi by Self-Play with a
General Reinforcement Learning Algorithm. This is an artificial intelligence paper about creating a neural network engine that plays Chess & Shogi better than conventional engines. Notice that it starts by citing a lot of previous articles in the introduction, but by the time it goes into detail about how AlphaZero is created and trained, there are much fewer citations. This is natural: after all, the authors are doing something that hasn't been done before, so one cannot expect there to be references.Princes’ Wars, Wars of the People, or Total War? Mass Armies and the Question of a Military Revolution in Germany, 1792–1815. Here we have a history paper about Germany during the Napoleonic wars. Now we see citations everywhere. The entire paper is filled with it, almost uniformly. Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to find a paragraph that doesn't have three citations.
Since expectations vary by field, the answer to your question is also going to depend on your field. But there's an easy shortcut: since your lecturer is requesting 3 citations a paper, you are probably in a field more akin to history and less to artificial intelligence. In that case, three citations per paragraph is not excessive, and you should conform to the field's standards.
Nice examples! (I don't have access the the second paper, but what you said about it definitely seems reasonable to me.)
– Dave L Renfro
yesterday
@DaveLRenfro good point, switching to an OA article.
– Allure
yesterday
add a comment |
Yes and no. This is highly field dependent. Here are two examples:
Mastering Chess and Shogi by Self-Play with a
General Reinforcement Learning Algorithm. This is an artificial intelligence paper about creating a neural network engine that plays Chess & Shogi better than conventional engines. Notice that it starts by citing a lot of previous articles in the introduction, but by the time it goes into detail about how AlphaZero is created and trained, there are much fewer citations. This is natural: after all, the authors are doing something that hasn't been done before, so one cannot expect there to be references.Princes’ Wars, Wars of the People, or Total War? Mass Armies and the Question of a Military Revolution in Germany, 1792–1815. Here we have a history paper about Germany during the Napoleonic wars. Now we see citations everywhere. The entire paper is filled with it, almost uniformly. Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to find a paragraph that doesn't have three citations.
Since expectations vary by field, the answer to your question is also going to depend on your field. But there's an easy shortcut: since your lecturer is requesting 3 citations a paper, you are probably in a field more akin to history and less to artificial intelligence. In that case, three citations per paragraph is not excessive, and you should conform to the field's standards.
Yes and no. This is highly field dependent. Here are two examples:
Mastering Chess and Shogi by Self-Play with a
General Reinforcement Learning Algorithm. This is an artificial intelligence paper about creating a neural network engine that plays Chess & Shogi better than conventional engines. Notice that it starts by citing a lot of previous articles in the introduction, but by the time it goes into detail about how AlphaZero is created and trained, there are much fewer citations. This is natural: after all, the authors are doing something that hasn't been done before, so one cannot expect there to be references.Princes’ Wars, Wars of the People, or Total War? Mass Armies and the Question of a Military Revolution in Germany, 1792–1815. Here we have a history paper about Germany during the Napoleonic wars. Now we see citations everywhere. The entire paper is filled with it, almost uniformly. Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to find a paragraph that doesn't have three citations.
Since expectations vary by field, the answer to your question is also going to depend on your field. But there's an easy shortcut: since your lecturer is requesting 3 citations a paper, you are probably in a field more akin to history and less to artificial intelligence. In that case, three citations per paragraph is not excessive, and you should conform to the field's standards.
edited yesterday
answered 2 days ago
AllureAllure
35k19103157
35k19103157
Nice examples! (I don't have access the the second paper, but what you said about it definitely seems reasonable to me.)
– Dave L Renfro
yesterday
@DaveLRenfro good point, switching to an OA article.
– Allure
yesterday
add a comment |
Nice examples! (I don't have access the the second paper, but what you said about it definitely seems reasonable to me.)
– Dave L Renfro
yesterday
@DaveLRenfro good point, switching to an OA article.
– Allure
yesterday
Nice examples! (I don't have access the the second paper, but what you said about it definitely seems reasonable to me.)
– Dave L Renfro
yesterday
Nice examples! (I don't have access the the second paper, but what you said about it definitely seems reasonable to me.)
– Dave L Renfro
yesterday
@DaveLRenfro good point, switching to an OA article.
– Allure
yesterday
@DaveLRenfro good point, switching to an OA article.
– Allure
yesterday
add a comment |
Trying to get the people here between you and your instructor will annoy her even more. Whether it is excessive or not, it is her requirements that matter.
But I'll just guess that she wants to push you a bit to give you good habits of backing up everything you say in your paper using the available literature. She probably also wants you to do a lot of literature searching.
Treat it as something like a "wind-sprint" ordered by a football coach to give you endurance and prepare you for the big game. As Nike said: Just. Do. It.
I don't plan on using anything here against anyone. I just want to get a basic feel for what's generally expected. Her style of communication isn't the clearest, and I'm expecting that this is one of her many sins of omission.
– Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog
2 days ago
As much as I agree with this answer and respect your intent, I think you need to balance following a specific instructor's rule of thumb with truly understanding what a citation is and when you should use it. Forcing yourself to generate three improper or artificial citations per paragraph is different than writing paragraphs that inherently have three legitimate citations each.
– dwizum
yesterday
Consider an analogy: if you're a building contractor putting up houses in a development, and the developer tells you "every house must have three staircases!" you should probably make sure you're not slapping three staircases to nowhere in a bunch of one-story houses.
– dwizum
yesterday
1
Actually, @dwizum, wouldn't a wise contractor try to figure out the real intent and satisfy it intelligently? Should a wise student do less? I hope the OP doesn't conclude that artificial citations are "going for the win". (Actually, at one point in my early educations I was a "smart ass" student myself though. Parent-teacher conference resulted, of course.)
– Buffy
yesterday
Yes agreed - I guess my point was, if the instructor is requiring three per paragraph, then yes - do three - but also, make sure you're understanding what a citation is for, and using them appropriately. I think in the end we're saying the same thing.
– dwizum
yesterday
add a comment |
Trying to get the people here between you and your instructor will annoy her even more. Whether it is excessive or not, it is her requirements that matter.
But I'll just guess that she wants to push you a bit to give you good habits of backing up everything you say in your paper using the available literature. She probably also wants you to do a lot of literature searching.
Treat it as something like a "wind-sprint" ordered by a football coach to give you endurance and prepare you for the big game. As Nike said: Just. Do. It.
I don't plan on using anything here against anyone. I just want to get a basic feel for what's generally expected. Her style of communication isn't the clearest, and I'm expecting that this is one of her many sins of omission.
– Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog
2 days ago
As much as I agree with this answer and respect your intent, I think you need to balance following a specific instructor's rule of thumb with truly understanding what a citation is and when you should use it. Forcing yourself to generate three improper or artificial citations per paragraph is different than writing paragraphs that inherently have three legitimate citations each.
– dwizum
yesterday
Consider an analogy: if you're a building contractor putting up houses in a development, and the developer tells you "every house must have three staircases!" you should probably make sure you're not slapping three staircases to nowhere in a bunch of one-story houses.
– dwizum
yesterday
1
Actually, @dwizum, wouldn't a wise contractor try to figure out the real intent and satisfy it intelligently? Should a wise student do less? I hope the OP doesn't conclude that artificial citations are "going for the win". (Actually, at one point in my early educations I was a "smart ass" student myself though. Parent-teacher conference resulted, of course.)
– Buffy
yesterday
Yes agreed - I guess my point was, if the instructor is requiring three per paragraph, then yes - do three - but also, make sure you're understanding what a citation is for, and using them appropriately. I think in the end we're saying the same thing.
– dwizum
yesterday
add a comment |
Trying to get the people here between you and your instructor will annoy her even more. Whether it is excessive or not, it is her requirements that matter.
But I'll just guess that she wants to push you a bit to give you good habits of backing up everything you say in your paper using the available literature. She probably also wants you to do a lot of literature searching.
Treat it as something like a "wind-sprint" ordered by a football coach to give you endurance and prepare you for the big game. As Nike said: Just. Do. It.
Trying to get the people here between you and your instructor will annoy her even more. Whether it is excessive or not, it is her requirements that matter.
But I'll just guess that she wants to push you a bit to give you good habits of backing up everything you say in your paper using the available literature. She probably also wants you to do a lot of literature searching.
Treat it as something like a "wind-sprint" ordered by a football coach to give you endurance and prepare you for the big game. As Nike said: Just. Do. It.
answered 2 days ago
BuffyBuffy
57.3k17181277
57.3k17181277
I don't plan on using anything here against anyone. I just want to get a basic feel for what's generally expected. Her style of communication isn't the clearest, and I'm expecting that this is one of her many sins of omission.
– Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog
2 days ago
As much as I agree with this answer and respect your intent, I think you need to balance following a specific instructor's rule of thumb with truly understanding what a citation is and when you should use it. Forcing yourself to generate three improper or artificial citations per paragraph is different than writing paragraphs that inherently have three legitimate citations each.
– dwizum
yesterday
Consider an analogy: if you're a building contractor putting up houses in a development, and the developer tells you "every house must have three staircases!" you should probably make sure you're not slapping three staircases to nowhere in a bunch of one-story houses.
– dwizum
yesterday
1
Actually, @dwizum, wouldn't a wise contractor try to figure out the real intent and satisfy it intelligently? Should a wise student do less? I hope the OP doesn't conclude that artificial citations are "going for the win". (Actually, at one point in my early educations I was a "smart ass" student myself though. Parent-teacher conference resulted, of course.)
– Buffy
yesterday
Yes agreed - I guess my point was, if the instructor is requiring three per paragraph, then yes - do three - but also, make sure you're understanding what a citation is for, and using them appropriately. I think in the end we're saying the same thing.
– dwizum
yesterday
add a comment |
I don't plan on using anything here against anyone. I just want to get a basic feel for what's generally expected. Her style of communication isn't the clearest, and I'm expecting that this is one of her many sins of omission.
– Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog
2 days ago
As much as I agree with this answer and respect your intent, I think you need to balance following a specific instructor's rule of thumb with truly understanding what a citation is and when you should use it. Forcing yourself to generate three improper or artificial citations per paragraph is different than writing paragraphs that inherently have three legitimate citations each.
– dwizum
yesterday
Consider an analogy: if you're a building contractor putting up houses in a development, and the developer tells you "every house must have three staircases!" you should probably make sure you're not slapping three staircases to nowhere in a bunch of one-story houses.
– dwizum
yesterday
1
Actually, @dwizum, wouldn't a wise contractor try to figure out the real intent and satisfy it intelligently? Should a wise student do less? I hope the OP doesn't conclude that artificial citations are "going for the win". (Actually, at one point in my early educations I was a "smart ass" student myself though. Parent-teacher conference resulted, of course.)
– Buffy
yesterday
Yes agreed - I guess my point was, if the instructor is requiring three per paragraph, then yes - do three - but also, make sure you're understanding what a citation is for, and using them appropriately. I think in the end we're saying the same thing.
– dwizum
yesterday
I don't plan on using anything here against anyone. I just want to get a basic feel for what's generally expected. Her style of communication isn't the clearest, and I'm expecting that this is one of her many sins of omission.
– Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog
2 days ago
I don't plan on using anything here against anyone. I just want to get a basic feel for what's generally expected. Her style of communication isn't the clearest, and I'm expecting that this is one of her many sins of omission.
– Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog
2 days ago
As much as I agree with this answer and respect your intent, I think you need to balance following a specific instructor's rule of thumb with truly understanding what a citation is and when you should use it. Forcing yourself to generate three improper or artificial citations per paragraph is different than writing paragraphs that inherently have three legitimate citations each.
– dwizum
yesterday
As much as I agree with this answer and respect your intent, I think you need to balance following a specific instructor's rule of thumb with truly understanding what a citation is and when you should use it. Forcing yourself to generate three improper or artificial citations per paragraph is different than writing paragraphs that inherently have three legitimate citations each.
– dwizum
yesterday
Consider an analogy: if you're a building contractor putting up houses in a development, and the developer tells you "every house must have three staircases!" you should probably make sure you're not slapping three staircases to nowhere in a bunch of one-story houses.
– dwizum
yesterday
Consider an analogy: if you're a building contractor putting up houses in a development, and the developer tells you "every house must have three staircases!" you should probably make sure you're not slapping three staircases to nowhere in a bunch of one-story houses.
– dwizum
yesterday
1
1
Actually, @dwizum, wouldn't a wise contractor try to figure out the real intent and satisfy it intelligently? Should a wise student do less? I hope the OP doesn't conclude that artificial citations are "going for the win". (Actually, at one point in my early educations I was a "smart ass" student myself though. Parent-teacher conference resulted, of course.)
– Buffy
yesterday
Actually, @dwizum, wouldn't a wise contractor try to figure out the real intent and satisfy it intelligently? Should a wise student do less? I hope the OP doesn't conclude that artificial citations are "going for the win". (Actually, at one point in my early educations I was a "smart ass" student myself though. Parent-teacher conference resulted, of course.)
– Buffy
yesterday
Yes agreed - I guess my point was, if the instructor is requiring three per paragraph, then yes - do three - but also, make sure you're understanding what a citation is for, and using them appropriately. I think in the end we're saying the same thing.
– dwizum
yesterday
Yes agreed - I guess my point was, if the instructor is requiring three per paragraph, then yes - do three - but also, make sure you're understanding what a citation is for, and using them appropriately. I think in the end we're saying the same thing.
– dwizum
yesterday
add a comment |
First of all, the number of citations needed doesn't have anything to do with whether it's undergraduate work or a professional article. My guess from what little you've said is that she gave you a rule of thumb that you're taking too literally.
Citations are used to support a statement you make with an authoritative source, since presumably you aren't an authority. Three citations per paragraph would mean that you are synthesizing a variety of sources and not relying on any one source for long chunks of text, which could border on plagiarism. As long as you are making good use of multiple sources and citing them properly, I doubt that she is going to count the exact number of citations per paragraph.
2
Hmmm. On the other hand, reasonable as it sounds, you won't be the one with the marking pen.
– Buffy
2 days ago
add a comment |
First of all, the number of citations needed doesn't have anything to do with whether it's undergraduate work or a professional article. My guess from what little you've said is that she gave you a rule of thumb that you're taking too literally.
Citations are used to support a statement you make with an authoritative source, since presumably you aren't an authority. Three citations per paragraph would mean that you are synthesizing a variety of sources and not relying on any one source for long chunks of text, which could border on plagiarism. As long as you are making good use of multiple sources and citing them properly, I doubt that she is going to count the exact number of citations per paragraph.
2
Hmmm. On the other hand, reasonable as it sounds, you won't be the one with the marking pen.
– Buffy
2 days ago
add a comment |
First of all, the number of citations needed doesn't have anything to do with whether it's undergraduate work or a professional article. My guess from what little you've said is that she gave you a rule of thumb that you're taking too literally.
Citations are used to support a statement you make with an authoritative source, since presumably you aren't an authority. Three citations per paragraph would mean that you are synthesizing a variety of sources and not relying on any one source for long chunks of text, which could border on plagiarism. As long as you are making good use of multiple sources and citing them properly, I doubt that she is going to count the exact number of citations per paragraph.
First of all, the number of citations needed doesn't have anything to do with whether it's undergraduate work or a professional article. My guess from what little you've said is that she gave you a rule of thumb that you're taking too literally.
Citations are used to support a statement you make with an authoritative source, since presumably you aren't an authority. Three citations per paragraph would mean that you are synthesizing a variety of sources and not relying on any one source for long chunks of text, which could border on plagiarism. As long as you are making good use of multiple sources and citing them properly, I doubt that she is going to count the exact number of citations per paragraph.
answered 2 days ago
Elizabeth HenningElizabeth Henning
6,15311033
6,15311033
2
Hmmm. On the other hand, reasonable as it sounds, you won't be the one with the marking pen.
– Buffy
2 days ago
add a comment |
2
Hmmm. On the other hand, reasonable as it sounds, you won't be the one with the marking pen.
– Buffy
2 days ago
2
2
Hmmm. On the other hand, reasonable as it sounds, you won't be the one with the marking pen.
– Buffy
2 days ago
Hmmm. On the other hand, reasonable as it sounds, you won't be the one with the marking pen.
– Buffy
2 days ago
add a comment |
I am sure this is somewhat field dependent, but 3 citations per paragraph seems like perfectly reasonable advice to give. In terms of general advice, paragraphs have 5 sentences (yes sometimes they have more and sometimes they have less, but we are talking in generalities). The first sentence is a topic sentence and the last is a concluding sentence. These should be (to continue with the sweeping generalities) original ideas that do not require citations. The other 3 sentences are you supporting arguments and should each have a reference (possibly to multiple works).
When you extrapolate this out to a 20 page paper, there might be 40 5-sentence paragraphs. The first paragraph and the last paragraph may not have citations also (as again they are the original ideas). Finally, some works would be cited in multiple places. That might put the total number of unique references in a 20 page paper at around 80-100. I don't think I have ever seen an undergraduate paper get to that number, but I also write citation needed an awful lot.
add a comment |
I am sure this is somewhat field dependent, but 3 citations per paragraph seems like perfectly reasonable advice to give. In terms of general advice, paragraphs have 5 sentences (yes sometimes they have more and sometimes they have less, but we are talking in generalities). The first sentence is a topic sentence and the last is a concluding sentence. These should be (to continue with the sweeping generalities) original ideas that do not require citations. The other 3 sentences are you supporting arguments and should each have a reference (possibly to multiple works).
When you extrapolate this out to a 20 page paper, there might be 40 5-sentence paragraphs. The first paragraph and the last paragraph may not have citations also (as again they are the original ideas). Finally, some works would be cited in multiple places. That might put the total number of unique references in a 20 page paper at around 80-100. I don't think I have ever seen an undergraduate paper get to that number, but I also write citation needed an awful lot.
add a comment |
I am sure this is somewhat field dependent, but 3 citations per paragraph seems like perfectly reasonable advice to give. In terms of general advice, paragraphs have 5 sentences (yes sometimes they have more and sometimes they have less, but we are talking in generalities). The first sentence is a topic sentence and the last is a concluding sentence. These should be (to continue with the sweeping generalities) original ideas that do not require citations. The other 3 sentences are you supporting arguments and should each have a reference (possibly to multiple works).
When you extrapolate this out to a 20 page paper, there might be 40 5-sentence paragraphs. The first paragraph and the last paragraph may not have citations also (as again they are the original ideas). Finally, some works would be cited in multiple places. That might put the total number of unique references in a 20 page paper at around 80-100. I don't think I have ever seen an undergraduate paper get to that number, but I also write citation needed an awful lot.
I am sure this is somewhat field dependent, but 3 citations per paragraph seems like perfectly reasonable advice to give. In terms of general advice, paragraphs have 5 sentences (yes sometimes they have more and sometimes they have less, but we are talking in generalities). The first sentence is a topic sentence and the last is a concluding sentence. These should be (to continue with the sweeping generalities) original ideas that do not require citations. The other 3 sentences are you supporting arguments and should each have a reference (possibly to multiple works).
When you extrapolate this out to a 20 page paper, there might be 40 5-sentence paragraphs. The first paragraph and the last paragraph may not have citations also (as again they are the original ideas). Finally, some works would be cited in multiple places. That might put the total number of unique references in a 20 page paper at around 80-100. I don't think I have ever seen an undergraduate paper get to that number, but I also write citation needed an awful lot.
answered 2 days ago
StrongBad♦StrongBad
87k24217426
87k24217426
add a comment |
add a comment |
16
What field is this? What type of paper? Does she mean 200 unique references or 200 citations? Please add more detail.
– Azor Ahai
2 days ago
25
Why are you asking us rather than the instructor? You are not even clear on what the instructor is actually requiring. Obviously 3 citations for every single paragraph in a 20 page paper seems high, but without the context, we can't say more than that (and our opinions don't matter in any case).
– cag51
2 days ago
by default, do what instructor say, show them example of your work, then adjust
– aaaaaa
2 days ago
How many words is "20 pages"? FWIW I made just over 200 citations in a 14K word thesis.
– curiousdannii
yesterday
1
@curiousdannii a fair comparison is probably the number of citations in your literature review/introduction since that is closer to a term paper format.
– StrongBad♦
yesterday