Joining the Conversation: Scholarly Justification for Citation

Monday, October 08, 2018 APA , Citations , Scholarly Writing 2 comments

Why do APA style standards include a requirement about writers attributing points to their respective sources through proper citation? Many scholarly writers are likely aware of APA standards for citation in relation to avoiding plagiarism. However, proper citation is not only about avoiding plagiarism and giving credit for ideas where credit is due. Citation is also about situating yourself, as a scholar, in your field of study. In this post, let’s take a look at what it means to situate yourself as a scholar in your field of study.

Three persons engaging in a conversation.

When you read and use sources in your field of study, you are entering the academic conversation of those in your field. As such, you are situating yourself in your field of study. For instance, as you read more within your disciplinary field, you become more familiar with some of the terms used in that field to discuss certain concepts. If you are a nursing student, for example, you not only follow APA standards for scholarly writing, you also likely have a certain set of standards in relation to terms and concepts that are specific for your field of study which are used to communicate ideas. Just like there are specific terms and concepts in your field of study, there are scholars in your field of study who have developed and or discussed these specific terms and concepts, creating new arguments by building on the arguments of others.

So, when you acknowledge these scholars in your own work, you are acknowledging that you are familiar with the conversations that have already taken place within your field of study and, in doing so, are able to better situation your own voice within that conversation. For example, imagine what the field of medicine would be like now if the last argument was that doctors and nurses should wash their hands as a precaution against infection? Someone needed to first make the argument and then others in the field needed to build on the concepts behind the argument to simultaneously create new arguments within a field of study and ensure that field of study is alive and fresh with new advances.

Flash forward to today: You wouldn’t want to be in the field of nursing, for instance, and presume to make an original claim that nurses should wash their hands, right? Doing so would not only not lead to advancements in your field of study, but it would situate you as an outsider to the field, unfamiliar with the discourse and studies that scholars have already conducted. Thus, you would want to know what the most recent scholarly discussion in your field is on this topic, and you would want to use that research to develop your own argument—an argument that can only be supported by acknowledging the relevant arguments on the topic that have already taken place.

Along with the disciplinary expectations for scholarly writing in general (such as following the APA style guide for those in the social sciences), there are also expectations within your own field of study. These expectations include knowing the conversations that have already taken place in your field of study and being able to cite them and build off them with your own, unique critical thinking and contributions to those conversations. In short, by citing others, you simultaneously build your own scholarly credibility and situate yourself as a scholar in your field of study.

What are some other ways you build scholarly credibility in your field of study by following APA style standards?

Veronica Oliver is a Writing Instructor in the Walden Writing Center. In her spare time she writes fiction, binge watches Netflix, and occasionally makes it to a 6am Bikram Yoga class.