Peer Review of Tricky Citations

So many fiddly details to remember! So many different sources! Correcting citations can be challenging. This activity is designed to help students develop effective process for polishing their citations.

Author: Valerie Kinsey

Course: PWR 1/PWR 2 

Activity length and schedule: 25-30 minutes

Activity goals: To encourage attention to detail in citation practice; to slow down and pick up the patterns and logic of the citation method. 

Activity description: In this activity, students begin by identifying 1-2 sources they have struggled to cite correctly. The struggle may be due to the nature of the source itself, or the fact that some important information is difficult to find. After each student has identified a “tricky citation”, they share it with 3-4 peers in a shared Google doc. Groups end up with anywhere from about 4-8 “tricky citations” to review. Using resources provided on Canvas (ex. A Citation Table pdf) and online (ex. Purdue OWL), students evaluate the citations one by one until they are satisfied all are correct. Time permitting, I challenge students to pick the trickiest citation they examined and write it on the board.

Additional notes: I also share with students the many, many mistakes I had to correct in the Works Cited of my dissertation. The citation generator I used provided a great first draft, but it was riddled with errors I corrected manually.