In-text citations

       When writing a paper or an article, it is necessary to bear in mind that it is a crime to cut and paste somebody else’s concepts. It is undeniable that when writing it is necessary to do research and sometimes refer to other authors’ ideas. The original writer must always be named if we use his/her thoughts. One way of doing this is by using the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association 6^th Edition (2010).  In this book, different in-text citations appear, like paraphrased material, parenthetical citations or block quotations. Some examples of in-text citations can be found in the text Narratives in teaching education written by Dolk and den Hertog (2008).

·         Paraphrased ideas are used to share other authors’ ideas but using our own words. In the following example found on page 220, it can be seen that the authors choose to place the original author’s name and the date between parenthesis.

In relation to this, we can refer to the methodological norm of ‘‘trackability,’’ which is used as a criterion in ethnographic research (Smaling, 1992).

·         Paraphrased ideas can also be used by mentioning the author’s name in a signal phrase and placing the date between parenthesis, an example was found on pages 215- 216.

Goffree and Dolk (1995) identified reflection, narration, and construction as being particularly important for teacher education.

·         When mentioning the same authors for several times, for future references it is advisable to write only the first’ author’s last name and et al.  The following example was found on page 216.

MILE is a multimedia interactive learning environment for prospective primary school teachers, with content for primary mathematics teacher education programs (Dolk et al., 1996; Goffree & Oonk, 2001).

Writers with little experience tend to steal ideas from other authors and many times they do this without realizing it, this is called plagiarism. But, it is easy to avoid having problems with the original author. For this, it is advisable to use the advice given in writing manuals, like the APA Manual 6^th edition (2010).

References

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. (6th, ed.) Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Dolk, M & den Hertog, J. (2008) Narratives in teacher education, Interactive Learning Environments, 16:3, 215-229. Doi:10.1080/10494820802113970