How to Cite References?

When you are writing an essay or academic piece, you often tend to include the work of others. This happens mostly in academic articles. They include work of other authors to prove the main point or theme. This is because there is so much work already done by different authors that even a new topic is just an extension of the already available ones. Every time you do research for your topic, you find tremendous amount of work done. It is important to include that work in your writing to persuade readers. However, there is a proper ethical manner of doing so. You cannot just copy the work and present it as your own. There are certain rules that should be followed. Otherwise, your entire work can go to waste and be termed as plagiarized. If you do not want to ruin your academic reputation, you should follow these rules to cite references.

APA

APA, also known as American Psychological Association, is one of the most commonly used type of reference. It is mostly used for health sciences and social sciences. You can use this method to cite any references in your article. It follows the author-date method of in-text citation. With this method, a complete description of the author's work will be given in the reference list. The reference list is located at the end of the paper. However, the last name of the author along with the year of publication appears in the text. For example, (Marconi, 1999).

Paraphrasing

Another way to mention any references in your work is by paraphrasing the lines. You should not use them as they were. Summarize the idea in your own words. However, you still have to mention the name of the author to give credit.

How to Identify Facts in Text?

A fact is a brief statement that expresses an idea that has been already proven as true. Facts add more to the credibility of a text and also show the author's awareness and knowledge in whatever he is writing about. Adding facts to your argumentative and other forms of writing can interest and hook the readers to read more.

Facts also add more to the knowledge of your readers and substantiate your ideas. Many students who add facts to their own writings may find it difficult to identify a fact and differentiate it from the personal opinions of an author of a text. Here are a few ways to identify facts in a text easily:

Look for Numerical Figures

Most facts that authors add to their work are in numerical form. These are proven figures from a survey or research that either directly or indirectly support whatever the author is claiming. Even skimming the text roughly can easily help one identify facts in the text. Most of the times, a data table or a statistics' chart can also contain facts in a visual form within a text.

Look for Citations

Most facts are already proven researches by someone else. While adding these facts into your work, you have to cite these to give due credit to the one who has proven these facts. Looking for citation in a text can also easily help you identify facts in a text.

Look for Scientific and Other Researches

A lot of authors like to prove the credibility of their arguments and ideas by quoting other scientific researches. They are likely to restate such researches in the main body of their text without giving any specific credit to someone else. Looking for such researches in a text can also help you identify a statement as a fact rather than an opinion or any other such thing.

How to Use Evidence from a Text?

Here are some ways to use evidence from a text.

Read Through the Text

To get the most out of a written text, it is important to give it a thorough read. You will not get anything out of it if you don't read it. If you want to use the evidence present in the text, you must give yourself enough time to read it. It is also possible that you might not get all the information with just one read. This is because first time readers are often busy in understanding the context of the text that they do not focus on the evidence that much. So, you might also have to read the text a few times to use the evidence. Give yourself plenty of time to thoroughly read through the text so that you do not miss anything at all.

Extract Evidence

The next step is to extract evidence. Once you are done understanding every bit of the writing, it is time to get evidence out of it. Evidence is what the author used to back up his point of view. There are many types of evidence that an author can use in the text.

Facts and Figures

One of the major types of evidence is facts and figures. Facts and figures are undeniable truths regarding the topic. They do not need any further proof. They are authentic and credible. You can spot facts and figures in inverted commas usually. Figures are stats that are mentioned in numbers.

Refer to Citations

The biggest evidence of an author's work is a citation. They refer to the work of other authors that have been approved. If you want to use evidence from a text, look at the citations. The citations contain all the references to the work of other authors that are mentioned in the text. You can search them up individually to use that evidence for yourself, but by giving credits of course.

How to Find Evidence in Text?

Evidence is a source, a fact or any other piece of information used to support a claim. It can be some data extracted from a research paper or any published report from a reputed source. The importance of adding supportive evidence to any piece of writing holds a fundamental importance. A reader needs to grab the correct evidence to agree with the piece of writing. However, some readers are still unaware of how to the find evidence in a text. Given below are some tips that will help one to find evidence in any text easily:

Read the Whole Content Carefully

Before looking for evidence in the text directly, make sure to read the whole content carefully. A reader needs to read every line of the text carefully to grab the main idea and to build some background knowledge. Read the content repeatedly until you understand it fully and then look for the evidence.

Paraphrase the Content

When a reader paraphrases something, they are writing what the writer said in their own words. By paraphrasing the whole content, they will write the evidence in their own words also and when they reread their piece of writing they can easily locate the evidence. Therefore, paraphrasing any text is a great tool that can also help one to find evidence in the text.

Give Yourself a Purpose

While reading anything, give yourself a set goal and have a clear purpose. For example, give yourself a purpose that you will apply what you will learn from reading in your daily life. This will not only help you to stay focused during finding the evidence but will also help you to enjoy your reading.

Use Annotations

Annotations helps you to find the meaning in the text by connecting a point to the previous ideas you read in the text. This will also help one understand about what will happen next. By keeping the previous text in mind, you can easily find evidence in any text. Thus, annotations must be cared for since they help one a lot in locating the evidence in the text.