Citation and attribution are an important aspect of academic writing.We can think of them as part of the social process of using other people's ideas in our academic work.
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Citation and attribution are an important aspect of academic writing.We can think of them as part of the social process of using other people's ideas in our academic work. |
In this section, we try to distinguish between these two terms:
Citation
We can overuse the term 'citation'. Let's define citation so we can distinguish it
from attribution:
to cite is simply to refer to someone's work in some way, naming one or more of their publications
A citation refers, then, to the fact of referring to an author or their work. The reasons for referring to other authors [discussed in the next section] relate more to attribution, and may reflect a need both to recognise other writers' work and to call upon their authority to support your own argument.
Example
Here, Altheide & Johnson (1994: 486) cite specific works by 3 authors:
"Works and criteria suggested by Dingwall (1992), Hammersley (1990) and Guba (1990) have been particularly helpful"
The writers make no direct evaluative and interpretive comments about Dingwall et al. They don't attribute any particular findings or opinions to them; they simply cite their work.
Attribution
Strictly speaking, then, citing other authors only means referring to
them or their work, and bringing them into your text. How and why
you refer to them and what they say in their work is attribution.
to attribute an idea is to publicly associate an author with a particular opinion, finding or actual statement (perhaps quoted).
In both the examples given below, we can see not only the association of authors and ideas, but the strength or character of that association:
Examples
1. Attributing an idea and an attitude:
Henderson (1969) argues that universities are the guardians
of intellectual freedom and the search for truth.
2. Attributing a statement more neutrally (by quotation):
As Land & Whitely (1989: 45) say, such readers of ESL
writing "allow the piece of writing ... to develop slowly, like a photographic print,
shading in the details".
In each extract, the writer is making an unspoken appeal to authority. In the first, if no contradiction or criticism follows, we will suppose that the writer agrees with Henderson. In the 2nd extract, the device "As L. & W. say" signals that the writer is using those authors to express his/her own view.