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November 6th D-WRD Notes: Links & Citations

Tricia Hermes, Kristin Rozzell, Julie Bokser, Blair Banwart, Sarah Brown and I had a good session in which we discussed the implications of links to sources embedded in student writing in lieu of in-text parenthetical citations. 

Tricia generously shared examples from her initial efforts to try this in her WRD104 classes, and discussed the examples both as a reader and as a writing teacher.

The consensus seems to be that we should encourage students to experiment providing in-text links and to continue alerting them to the disciplinary conventions of citations and works cited such that they can be rhetorically savvy when confronted with audience-based choices and decisions in the future. 

We also used this opportunity to reflect on the differences between digital literacy and critical digital literacy practices:

Digital literacy: skills and tool-based, often decontextualized — how to send an email; how to embed a video; how to make a hyperlink:

Critical digital literacy — or a multi-literacies curriculum: focuses on meaning making in context, including socio-economic issues — why would you want to send an email? Who, and under what conditions, would somebody want to watch a video? What are the rhetorical implications of that link?

If you have any suggestions or requests for WQ and SQ sessions, please let me know!

Thanks for reading — 

Session description:

  • Friday, November 6th: What are the implications of hyperlinks to sources integrated in students’ research papers in lieu of in-text & parenthetical citations?  

“Today, citation styles are important to the self-definition of many disciplines, and their forms reflect serious choices for writers and publishers. Indeed, the ideology of citation practices and styles is hotly debated. We suggest that student writers think about the implications of citation styles, what they foreground, and what they erase” (Lunsford, TWLH 160).

Possible related questions:

  • The role of genre, audience, and rhetorical purpose in hyperlink and citation decisions
  • The “404 Not Found” problem
  • Kairos and timelines of sources
  • Our responsibilities as writing instructors to teach citation styles
  • Since it’s often so hard to point to a concrete boundary in “digital literacy” — is this one?

Materials we’ll look at:

  • EasyBib.com
  • St. Martin’s Handbook 8/e: “MLA Style”, pp. 402-405 and the LaunchPad version, just for practice.
  • Connors, Robert J., ‘The Rhetoric of Citation Systems, Part II: Competing Epistemic Values in Citation.”