Essay Writing Guide

Citing Sources cont.....Common Errors

No Sources

There are numerous type of errors that can be made, the main one being not citing sources at all. The next example illustrates this:


There are two major errors within this example. The first mistake is that there are no sources referenced; it is not clear from what is written where the information comes from. The next error concerns the second sentence. This sentence states that it has been shown that there are three subsystems but provides no evidence from experimental work to back this up. The writer should have provided, at least, references to experiments that have backed up their assertions and perhaps short descriptions of the experiments. When you make any statement of psychological fact, you must back it up with evidence. Taking what has said to heart, the above example could be rewritten:


The above provides both the sources and starts to outline the evidence for the assertion that STM has more than one system.

Footnotes

A further error is the use of footnotes; although this is common usage in other social sciences and the humanities, footnotes are not generally used in psychology to reference sources. It is sometimes difficult when you are starting to write essays to keep changing styles but it is important that you keep to the standard style used in psychology.

Poor Formatting

The rules involved in citing sources within text are outlined clearly here and elsewhere. There are problems that occur more often than others such as using the title of the source within the reference in the text:


This example make two mistakes, forgetting to put the date with the reference, and giving the title of the source. There are many different ways of doing referencing wrong and only one way of doing it right. So do it right.