How do we know when to cite evidence? Descriptive Transcript

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Have you ever been working on an assignment and wondered, Do I need to cite evidence for this? This tutorial will cover why we need to cite evidence; when you need to cite evidence; and what types of sources count as evidence. How do we know when to cite evidence? Title slide

Let's start with why we need to cite. First, to avoid plagiarism. If you cite every time you use information from another source, you will abide by the university's honor code. Another reason is equitable attribution. Citation is about giving credit where credit is due. When someone creates something, they deserve credit for their work. Attributing credit equitably is about recognizing everyone's contributions. Citation also builds credibility for your work. Citing a strong source signals that your work is strong too, and builds confidence in your design. Finally, we cite because academic scholarship is a conversation. When you publish something, you are adding to the conversation on that topic. By citing the work that you're building on, you're connecting your work to that conversation.

 

When do you need to cite evidence? The main question to ask yourself is whether the information is common knowledge for your audience. In other words, is it something that most people who will be reading your work would know? If the answer is yes, you don't need a citation. If the answer is no, you should cite evidence. For example, if you're presenting to your class and make the claim "there are earthquakes in the U.S." Your class and professors would probably know that. So you don't need to cite it. But if you said "each year there are hundreds of earthquakes in the U.S.", most of your class probably isn't familiar with earthquake statistics. So you would need to cite evidence. Another example: You're writing your engineering capstone report for an audience of engineers, and you say "students who are visually impaired rely on other senses to learn." This concept would probably be well understood by your audience, so you don't need to cite evidence. But if you wrote, "since pegboards can't convey complex concepts, they are most commonly used at an elementary school level." Most engineers are probably not familiar with pegboards as a tool for teaching mathematical concepts. So we should cite evidence. Also, remember that what is common knowledge can vary a lot depending on your audience. For example, if you are presenting to a room full of electric racing teams, they all probably know what a dynamometer is. But in a room of engineers who work in other fields, or the general public, you would need to define the term and cite evidence for that information. Over time, you'll develop an understanding of what is common knowledge for people in your field. In the meantime, if you're not sure, you can ask your instructor or an advisor.

Is this information common knowledge for your audience? Yes and No charts with examples as described in audio.

Once you've determined that you need to cite evidence, how do you determine what evidence is needed? You can start by asking, How do we know this? Where did the info come from? If someone said "prove it", what will we show them? Here are a few examples of information we would need to cite in a design report and potential sources of evidence for each one. For example, if we made the claim, "there are currently over , K-12 students living in the US who are legally blind." A good source of evidence might be a recent government report that collected that data. Or if you were documenting your calculations for horsepower, you would need to cite the equation for how to do that. For this one, you might cite an engineering handbook with a list of formulas. Last, if you were documenting current costs for a typical water breakdown dynamometer, you might cite prices from a vendor who sells them. In all of these examples, citing the selected source provides credible evidence of that particular information.

 
What sources can be cited as evidence. Some common types are books, journal articles, conference papers, government reports, patents, standards and technical reports. But what about other sources that are often important for engineering design projects? For example, stakeholder interviews like with clients or advisors. Previous capstone reports, product specs, images or user reviews of existing solutions that you find online. Theses or dissertations by graduate students working on similar projects or code. The bottom line is that as long as you evaluate the source to make sure it's credible and you cite it correctly, any of these types of sources can be good sources of evidence. Also, if you're not familiar with the format for citing a type of source, you can refer to the guidelines for the citation style. you're using. Links to commonly used citation styles, including IEEE, a style commonly used in engineering is available on the library's citations and bibliographies guide. If you're using a citation manager like Mendeley, Zotero, Refworks or EndNote there's an option to choose the type of source you're citing and the citation manager will help you format the citation properly.

 
In summary, we cite sources to avoid plagiarism, give equitable attribution, build credibility for our work, and to connect our work to the scholarly conversation. If information is not common knowledge for your audience, best practice is to explain it and cite evidence. To determine what evidence you need to cite, think about where the information came from. If someone said "prove it", what would you show them? Many different types of sources can be used as evidence. As long as you have evaluated the source and determined it's credible and cited it correctly. Finally, when in doubt, it's better to cite.

 
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