1.       How to deal with sources

Sources or references are one common stumbling block for Chinese students.  I think this problem comes about because of different cultural background, and confusing information, so I want to take a little time to review the purpose of using references, how to quote, and finally how to write references in your research papers.

In China, it is common for educated people to quote from classical Chinese works – this is a sign of scholarship or learning.  Because everyone is expected to “know” the classics, there is no need to tell people where the quote comes from.  If people don’t know where it comes from, then they are simply showing there own lack of learning or ignorance.

Many Western works of literature also use quotes from the bible or classical Greek and Latin works and assume that the reader will recognize the reference.  This is often one reason why literature is very difficult for people from another culture to understand, even when they understand the vocabulary.

However, university research and academic papers follow a very different principle, and for good reasons.  Firstly, there is a huge amount of research which takes place every day of every week at universities and institutions around the world.  No-one is able to read even a fraction of the research that is carried out around the world each year, even in their own specialized field.  Therefore, in order to help the reader refer to the original research, the writer must include a reference to any other work that they source in their writing.  There is another very important reason why references must be given in academic papers.  In order to show that a fact or evidence is true, the reader must be able to examine the source to check its methods and conclusions.  This is the basis of scientific research – common methods must produce common results.  This is especially true when there is a difference between two sources.  For example, recently in their essays, two students found some information that says China requires more energy input per dollar of GDP than Japan – but one found 7 times as much, and another 11 times as much.  Unless we can examine carefully the basis and reliability of the source, we do not know which one to believe.  In other words, the source helps to establish the reliability of the information.

Now, you may ask, why do you need to use references at all?  What is wrong with your own opinion?  I sometimes hear students say “My opinion is just as good as your opinion.”  I’m sorry, but this is simply not true!  If this were true, there would be no need for you to study anything at all.  The fact is that the opinion of an expert is much more reliable than the opinion of someone with no experience.  Think about it – if you want to know whether an English sentence is correct or not, will you ask a native speaker, or a road worker on the street?

Of course, I am not saying that your opinions are worthless.  I believe that it is very important for you to have opinions.  But, what I am saying is, if you are really interested in learning the truth, you must constantly test your opinions against those of experts, and against real experience.  Only in this way can you discover whether your opinion can really be supported or not.  To believe a view, and to argue it is good.  But, to stick to a view when others have argued more convincingly that another view is correct, that is just being stubborn.  In university study, it is never a shame to admit that you were wrong about something.  Mistakes are common to every human.  We may have mistaken beliefs, mistaken views, mistaken opinions about how things work.  What makes you a real scientist, a real researcher, is that you are constantly looking for your own mistakes, and when you find them, you accept the mistake and move on.  Mistakes are not a shame, but refusing to accept or learn from a mistake – that is what prevents progress and holds society back.

That does not mean that experts are always right either.  Experts can be and are often wrong – they too, are human after all.  But, the chances that an expert will be right are higher than the chances that someone with little or no knowledge will be right.  A reference to an expert or study by other researchers is often the easiest way to support an argument.  After all, unless it is a completely new point of view, you are unlikely to be the first person to argue in that way.

When you search the internet, there is a huge range of personal opinions, from common people, children to experts.  The advantage of the internet is that it gives everyone a chance to express their own views.  The disadvantage is that there is a lot of rubbish on the internet.  When you are looking for information to support your ideas, try to find academic papers or sites maintained by official or knowledgeable sources, rather than a personal opinion in a blog.

Remember that using other people’s research to support your own is NOT the same as stealing other people’s research.  Perhaps a simple analogy will help you to understand this better:  Do you think it is wrong to steal money from a bank?  Would you do it?  No.  It is illegal, and if you get caught, you are in big trouble.  On the other hand, getting a loan from the bank to help you buy a house or car – there is nothing wrong with this, as long as you pay the money back.  Now, people’s writing is like money to them.  It is what they have produced through their own effort.  If you copy and use their writing as your own, then you are like a bank robber.  On the other hand, if you borrow their words in order to support your own research or point of view and pay them back by carefully writing a reference to their work, then you are like a person who takes out a bank loan.

The key to this is that you do not steal the other person’s work, or even their idea, but borrow it (and acknowledge the borrowing) in order to support YOUR OWN work.  If you simply borrow lots of other people’s words and put them together, you are not building your own house!  You must have your own idea first, and then use other’s ideas and words to support your own idea.  Remember, even using an idea from someone else’s work is stealing, unless you pay them back by referring to their work.

So, now that I hope you understand the importance of references, how do you use them in your writing?  The first thing to remember is that, unless the words are especially memorable (I have a dream!), it is much better to read the original carefully, then put away the source, and rewrite the idea completely in your own words.  Then, you STILL must “pay” for borrowing by citing the reference!  If you use a direct quote, make sure the words are exact, and surround them in quotation marks “ ”.  If you are going to quote more then two lines, separate the quote from the rest of your text as in the example.

Whether you use direct or indirect quotes, you need to put the reference in one of two ways.  Either put a footnote (or endnote) at the end of the quote, or use the scientific method of using the author’s surname and year of publication.  See the examples.

When you are citing your references at the end of your paper, please use the following method:

If your reference is in Chinese, you can either translate it, or create a separate section in the references for Chinese sources.

A reminder:    It is good (often necessary) to use other people’s work to support your own ideas.
                     It is bad to copy other people’s work unless you use to it support your OWN idea.

You MUST reference (pay for) any ideas or words that you borrow from others

                     It is bad to copy a large amount from one source
                     It is illegal to steal others’ work without paying for it.
                     An expert opinion is much stronger evidence than a personal opinion

2.       Library research

The purpose of library research is to get a basic understanding of the issues involved in your area of interest, to examine any existing theories, and to identify an area that has been poorly researched.  It is NOT to copy someone else’s theory or research and pretend that it is your own!  A good research paper will include a section called a “literature review”, which means a summary of what is known about the subject of your research.  Nowadays, much library research is no longer done in the library, but on the internet.  However, the principle is the same – your purpose is to find out WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN (so you don’t waste time repeating someone else’s research), and to CRITICALLY REVIEW it.  This means you think carefully about what you read, NOT just accept it.  One common problem for Chinese students is that often you accept what other people have written without carefully thinking it through.  If you do not critically review others’ work, you may miss an opportunity to show that the person is wrong.  It is not a case of “you have your opinion and I have mine”, but “I’ll show everyone that my opinion is better than yours”.  Only in this way can the world make progress.

Discussion:  Progress and development:  What is progress?  How do we make progress?  Why do some countries progress faster than others?  How can we stimulate progress? (10 minutes)

3.       Fresh comparison

Often, research consists of comparing one set of information with another set.  However, it should be a fresh comparison – not one that has been done before.  For example, a former student of mine compared the multicultural nature of tourism enterprises in Thailand and Yunnan – how multi-cultural the tourism industry was, how friendly the tourism enterprises were to foreign cultures etc.  It is very common in China for students to compare a character from a literary work in English to a character from Chinese literature.  However, please note that just repeating what other people have written is NOT original research!  A comparison between Jane Eyre and Lin Dayu from Hong Loumeng is not new!!

4.       A case study

A case study is a study which takes an existent theory and then tests it in a particular situation to see whether the theory is applicable, and how accurately it can predict the outcomes.  For example, a former student of mine did a case study during her work experience as a teacher in a middle school in Kunming.  She took a theory of motivational factors in language learning, and tested it in her classroom to see whether its conclusions were also true in the class she was teaching.  This kind of research is also common, but the case should be a valid case – if a very similar case has been done before, there should be very good reason to suspect the results before you do it again.

Of course, it is common, and perhaps best, to combine some or all of these methods in order to guarantee the accuracy and validity of the research.  A case study may include a questionnaire survey, recorded interviews, and a comparison between conditions in the case study area and those in other researched areas.  Let us look at an example: