Video Transcripts : How do we know when to cite evidence?

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.

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.