Teaching the politics of citation: Challenging students’ perceptions

In many of my regular one-shot instruction sessions, I often ask students why we cite in our work. The responses are typically the same: to avoid an Honor Code violation, because plagiarism is wrong, give credit. Sometimes I’ll hear “to find other articles.” All these correct and valid reasons cite. But feel like idea “credit” feels vague that consequences not giving credit affect person who should be citing, rather than being cited. So students, especially undergraduates, taught citations with message: if you do cite, will penalized. Students threatened punitive measures from their professors or honor council they mis-cite plagiarize. have schedule reference consultations me seeking help fix make up points lost—and for some, those technical errors were only major concerns paper. We been teaching a place compliance fear—fear plagiarizing, fear losing on technicalities. It’s no wonder don’t engage when teach how correctly craft article citation discipline’s style.