Tutors 21 | - Freelance Writer
Aug 15, 2018 | #1
As an academic consultant, one of the major problems that I come across when assisting college students in the development of their paper is the creation of their bibliography page. Due to having several writing styles available, each of which have a different in-text citation presentation, the students tend to get confused as to how to properly format the bibliography listing as well. While I do my best to help them properly format the paper, the fact that most of them use the internet for information to use in their paper proves to be a problem. They usually cannot find complete publication information online to use in their bibliography.
Then, I discovered that the internet is fast turning into a highly helpful place for students to work on their bibliography page. Without making any reference to a particular service, I referred my students to these so-called online citation generators. They came back to me to thank them for giving them the magical tool to creating a properly formatted source page for their research papers. I was ecstatic at the results as my job also became easier when it came to my having to assist the students with their writing requirements.
By using the online citation generator, the students did not need to bother with the details of the publication, which are difficult to source when the published work is years old. Using the online citation generator, the student no longer needed to have direct access to the publication information of their source material. The online app did it for them. All they had to do, was chose the correct writing style from the list, input some partial information and hit Create. The rest was done for them. All the student needed to know, was the kind of paper he was writing. The system required them to know if they needed the reference list in MLA, Chicago, APA, Turabian, Harvard, or what. Yep, it is the lazy student's friend. All they need to know, is how to cut and paste the information into their word document.
The reason why I recommend that students use citation generators is because they should be focusing on developing their research content and polishing their discussion. They should not be focused on getting publication information because that takes away too much time from the more important work of finalizing their content.
I also noticed a definite change in the students coming to me for assistance. They began to learn the citation differences because of the online tool. They could easily identify the type of research that was written based on the citation style presented for the source materials. It also made them more conscious of the publication information for their sources. Eventually, I came to learn that most of them had stopped using the generator tool because they felt confident enough to make the bibliography page from scratch already. Having learned the proper method of formatting it from the software. In my book, anything that helps a student to learn how to properly do something academic will never be bad.
Is a citation generation a cheating tool? I don't think so. Rather, I believe that this is an academic short-cut meant to help the student focus on what matters the most in his paper, its content.
Then, I discovered that the internet is fast turning into a highly helpful place for students to work on their bibliography page. Without making any reference to a particular service, I referred my students to these so-called online citation generators. They came back to me to thank them for giving them the magical tool to creating a properly formatted source page for their research papers. I was ecstatic at the results as my job also became easier when it came to my having to assist the students with their writing requirements.By using the online citation generator, the students did not need to bother with the details of the publication, which are difficult to source when the published work is years old. Using the online citation generator, the student no longer needed to have direct access to the publication information of their source material. The online app did it for them. All they had to do, was chose the correct writing style from the list, input some partial information and hit Create. The rest was done for them. All the student needed to know, was the kind of paper he was writing. The system required them to know if they needed the reference list in MLA, Chicago, APA, Turabian, Harvard, or what. Yep, it is the lazy student's friend. All they need to know, is how to cut and paste the information into their word document.
The reason why I recommend that students use citation generators is because they should be focusing on developing their research content and polishing their discussion. They should not be focused on getting publication information because that takes away too much time from the more important work of finalizing their content.
I also noticed a definite change in the students coming to me for assistance. They began to learn the citation differences because of the online tool. They could easily identify the type of research that was written based on the citation style presented for the source materials. It also made them more conscious of the publication information for their sources. Eventually, I came to learn that most of them had stopped using the generator tool because they felt confident enough to make the bibliography page from scratch already. Having learned the proper method of formatting it from the software. In my book, anything that helps a student to learn how to properly do something academic will never be bad.
Is a citation generation a cheating tool? I don't think so. Rather, I believe that this is an academic short-cut meant to help the student focus on what matters the most in his paper, its content.