credibility in citation

8/3/2019 Credibility in Citation

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Credibility in Citation

When you first think of a works cited page, it really gives off an apathetic vibe. Well,

I read the report, he seemed to really nail down his argument, and he even scribbled down some

names of where he had gotten the information. Good enough for me! And with a simple shrug

and a bright red A+ on the paper, another crime has been committed. What people dont realize

is how significant the work cited page really is to the ideas behind a paper. The work cited

supplies the reader with the research that went into the paper, which ultimately show the authors

ideals. We are supposed to learn from the work cited, as a source for the important background

information. However, until work cited pages are examined to show how credible the research

applied to a paper is, we will forever be stuck in a community growing from potentially

inaccurate material.

The noun credibility is defined by Princeton.edu as: the quality of being believable or

trustworthy. The idea behind credibility is straight forward, either you believe what someone

tells you or you dont. However, when the specifics of a situation are introduced such as who or

what is credible, then the line tends to get blurred. It is difficult in life to figure out who we can

trust and how we come to trust them. When we first meet someone our initial impression is

based off of intuition and personal sense. We take what we know and compare it to the other

person is telling us, then depending on their specialties and knowledge we make a decision to

trust them or not. There is however other ways we come to trust someone. We go to people we

already trust or we do research on the person. For example; when we try to find a new doctor we

go through many steps before we can trust them; after all they are giving us medicine and our

health is at risk. So first we might ask our friends if they know anything about the new doctor, or

research him/her through other patients. Looking at reviews of what other patients have said,


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and comparing experiences. Another way someone can see if the doctor is credible is to look at

their past schooling; do they have all of the proper training to give out medical advice? Finally

when we are satisfied that the doctor is qualified, based on what others have said, we take a look

for ourselves. We go in to have a consultation, and while we are in the waiting room, we take a

look around. We can learn a lot from a person based on how they present themselves and by the

way they talk. Do we feel that they know what they are talking about, do they seem

experienced?

This process of checking before accepting, should be implemented into our research and

reading. Most people today read an article and make assumptions that what they are reading has

credibility. However to truly understand how trustworthy a work is we need to look deeper. We

look into the work cited to see where the ideas for the work came from. For example if the

whole work cited for a paper was one minded then the argument the author made could be

considered biased and unacceptable as an informational tool.

When we read an article we are recommended it either by popular academic websites,

journals, teachers or friends. This takes care of peer recommendation for the first step in giving

credibility to the article. Next we must look into the other to see if they have published things

before and how knowledgeable they are on the subject. This, after all, goes hand in hand with

the work cited page because it gives background information on the article through the ability of

the author. We check their prerequisites; maybe he/she has written several other articles on the

subject, giving us confidence we as the reader can trust them. Then we look at the work cited

and see the different places the author has been to gather the ideas for the article. Finally we

move on to the article its self, we read it and as we go along we use our judgment and sense of

mind to decide whether or not we believe what the author is saying. This process seems


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mundane but for articles that impact how we think, or what we do it is important to understand

them completely.

The problem of overlooking the work cited has been imbedded into us ever since we

were little. As a child I can remember receiving the grading rubric for an upcoming paper I had

to write for an English class; and under the section for work cited, it said I needed at least eight

different sources. Even as a child I thought this was absurd because when I would sit down to

write the paper sometimes I found everything that I wanted to say in one article. However

because I forced, for the grade, to come up with eight different sources, I would go to Google

and type in the topic for my paper and cite the next seven links even though they had nothing to

do with my article. I would think of it as a mistake my teacher forced me to make; and one I

knew I would get away with too because the work cited page never got the time of day. If she

wasnt going to put in the time to even check my sources then why should I put time into making

them? The mentality that a students worked cited is underappreciated and gets over looked is all

too obvious to us as young scholars. And this really bothers me because it is evident in all levels

of learning and throughout all subjects of education. From my past experiences teachers dont

care for the work on the scrap piece of paper or the notes a student took, all they are concerned

with is the final product. However we know from James E. Porters article; Intertextuality and

the Discourse Community that all forms of text correspond (in a way) to each other and they

build off of each other. This holds strong throughout all forms of life; it is true what they say

that the journey is more important than the destination. As a growing community we will never

be done with the journey there is still more to learn.

This is why our work cited is so important to us; it shows the journey of our paper and

our thought process along the way. It provides build up for the paper. It is information not only


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provided to give credit to the original source, but also to describe uncommon ideas within the

paper. I use the word uncommon because I was always taught that if it was general knowledge

than it did not need to be cited. So to get a better view of what the author of the paper is trying

to say we must refer to the work cited and enrich our minds of the background information.

Humans as a species thrive for continuous growth and knowledge of things around us.

We use intertext as one of the key tools for growth, adding to the conversations bits and pieces at

a time. This is why writing is such a big part of the world; it is a way to keep us connected and

to help us learn as a community. However, if we continue to overlook even the most basic of

tools such as the work cited then we will eventually regress. Credit will never be given where

credit is due, because the recognition the work cited page deserves is not there; and the ideas and

people within those sources will go unseen. Stop committing the crime of underappreciating the

work cited, and start thinking about it in a whole new light.


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Work Cited

Porter, James E. "Intertextuality and the Discourse Community." Writing About Writing; A College

Reader(2010): 86-100. Print.

Princeton. "Credibility Definition." Worldnetweb.princeton.edu . Web.

.

Standler, Ronald B. "Evaluating Credibility of Information on the

Internet."Http://www.rbs0.com/credible . 25 May 2004. Web.

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