Is three citations per paragraph excessive for undergraduate research paper?












3















I've had a teacher tell me that I needed to have 3 citations per paragraph in my paper. The paper is to be 20 pages long. Is this level of citation (over 200 individual in-text citations in the paper) too much for undergraduate work? The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.










share|improve this question









New contributor




Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
















  • 3





    What field is this? What type of paper? Does she mean 200 unique references or 200 citations? Please add more detail.

    – Azor Ahai
    10 hours ago






  • 5





    Why are you asking us rather than the instructor? You are not even clear on what the instructor is actually requiring. Obviously 3 citations for every single paragraph in a 20 page paper seems high, but without the context, we can't say more than that (and our opinions don't matter in any case).

    – cag51
    9 hours ago











  • by default, do what instructor say, show them example of your work, then adjust

    – aaaaaa
    2 hours ago
















3















I've had a teacher tell me that I needed to have 3 citations per paragraph in my paper. The paper is to be 20 pages long. Is this level of citation (over 200 individual in-text citations in the paper) too much for undergraduate work? The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.










share|improve this question









New contributor




Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
















  • 3





    What field is this? What type of paper? Does she mean 200 unique references or 200 citations? Please add more detail.

    – Azor Ahai
    10 hours ago






  • 5





    Why are you asking us rather than the instructor? You are not even clear on what the instructor is actually requiring. Obviously 3 citations for every single paragraph in a 20 page paper seems high, but without the context, we can't say more than that (and our opinions don't matter in any case).

    – cag51
    9 hours ago











  • by default, do what instructor say, show them example of your work, then adjust

    – aaaaaa
    2 hours ago














3












3








3








I've had a teacher tell me that I needed to have 3 citations per paragraph in my paper. The paper is to be 20 pages long. Is this level of citation (over 200 individual in-text citations in the paper) too much for undergraduate work? The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.










share|improve this question









New contributor




Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.












I've had a teacher tell me that I needed to have 3 citations per paragraph in my paper. The paper is to be 20 pages long. Is this level of citation (over 200 individual in-text citations in the paper) too much for undergraduate work? The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.







citations






share|improve this question









New contributor




Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.











share|improve this question









New contributor




Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited 10 hours ago







Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog













New contributor




Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









asked 10 hours ago









Nathan Eggers Techno Tech BlogNathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog

192




192




New contributor




Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.





New contributor





Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.






Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.








  • 3





    What field is this? What type of paper? Does she mean 200 unique references or 200 citations? Please add more detail.

    – Azor Ahai
    10 hours ago






  • 5





    Why are you asking us rather than the instructor? You are not even clear on what the instructor is actually requiring. Obviously 3 citations for every single paragraph in a 20 page paper seems high, but without the context, we can't say more than that (and our opinions don't matter in any case).

    – cag51
    9 hours ago











  • by default, do what instructor say, show them example of your work, then adjust

    – aaaaaa
    2 hours ago














  • 3





    What field is this? What type of paper? Does she mean 200 unique references or 200 citations? Please add more detail.

    – Azor Ahai
    10 hours ago






  • 5





    Why are you asking us rather than the instructor? You are not even clear on what the instructor is actually requiring. Obviously 3 citations for every single paragraph in a 20 page paper seems high, but without the context, we can't say more than that (and our opinions don't matter in any case).

    – cag51
    9 hours ago











  • by default, do what instructor say, show them example of your work, then adjust

    – aaaaaa
    2 hours ago








3




3





What field is this? What type of paper? Does she mean 200 unique references or 200 citations? Please add more detail.

– Azor Ahai
10 hours ago





What field is this? What type of paper? Does she mean 200 unique references or 200 citations? Please add more detail.

– Azor Ahai
10 hours ago




5




5





Why are you asking us rather than the instructor? You are not even clear on what the instructor is actually requiring. Obviously 3 citations for every single paragraph in a 20 page paper seems high, but without the context, we can't say more than that (and our opinions don't matter in any case).

– cag51
9 hours ago





Why are you asking us rather than the instructor? You are not even clear on what the instructor is actually requiring. Obviously 3 citations for every single paragraph in a 20 page paper seems high, but without the context, we can't say more than that (and our opinions don't matter in any case).

– cag51
9 hours ago













by default, do what instructor say, show them example of your work, then adjust

– aaaaaa
2 hours ago





by default, do what instructor say, show them example of your work, then adjust

– aaaaaa
2 hours ago










5 Answers
5






active

oldest

votes


















12














If you are asking whether it is a general "best practice" for a research paper at any level to have three citations per paragraph: no, it is not. In any level research paper, you should cite as often (equivalently, as little) as necessary in order to inform the reader of relevant prior work. If seven papers are relevant to what you are saying in a given sentence, you should cite those seven papers. If in a paragraph you are not saying anything that makes reference to or would be aided by making reference to prior literature, then there should be no citations in the paragraph. You never insert citations to meet numerical requirements.



However, this is an assignment for a course, so the best practice is whatever your instructor told you.




The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.




No, you can ask your instructor which of the above is what she wants. I encourage you to do so.






share|improve this answer


























  • This is true for professional-level work, but undergraduate term papers don't generally include contextualization in the literature because they don't generally make new contributions to the field.

    – Elizabeth Henning
    9 hours ago











  • @ElizabethHenning Even if you don't add anything new, isn't it still good to provide context?

    – JAB
    6 hours ago






  • 1





    @JAB Of course, but advice like "three citations per paragraph" leads me to believe that the OP is a Writing 101 course where the assignment is to do independent reading on a topic and then write it up in an "academic style" with citations back to the source material. This is very different from a survey paper or doing original research and providing citations in a lit review.

    – Elizabeth Henning
    6 hours ago





















3














Trying to get the people here between you and your instructor will annoy her even more. Whether it is excessive or not, it is her requirements that matter.



But I'll just guess that she wants to push you a bit to give you good habits of backing up everything you say in your paper using the available literature. She probably also wants you to do a lot of literature searching.



Treat it as something like a "wind-sprint" ordered by a football coach to give you endurance and prepare you for the big game. As Nike said: Just. Do. It.






share|improve this answer
























  • I don't plan on using anything here against anyone. I just want to get a basic feel for what's generally expected. Her style of communication isn't the clearest, and I'm expecting that this is one of her many sins of omission.

    – Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog
    10 hours ago



















3














First of all, the number of citations needed doesn't have anything to do with whether it's undergraduate work or a professional article. My guess from what little you've said is that she gave you a rule of thumb that you're taking too literally.



Citations are used to support a statement you make with an authoritative source, since presumably you aren't an authority. Three citations per paragraph would mean that you are synthesizing a variety of sources and not relying on any one source for long chunks of text, which could border on plagiarism. As long as you are making good use of multiple sources and citing them properly, I doubt that she is going to count the exact number of citations per paragraph.






share|improve this answer
























  • Hmmm. On the other hand, reasonable as it sounds, you won't be the one with the marking pen.

    – Buffy
    9 hours ago



















2














I am sure this is somewhat field dependent, but 3 citations per paragraph seems like perfectly reasonable advice to give. In terms of general advice, paragraphs have 5 sentences (yes sometimes they have more and sometimes they have less, but we are talking in generalities). The first sentence is a topic sentence and the last is a concluding sentence. These should be (to continue with the sweeping generalities) original ideas that do not require citations. The other 3 sentences are you supporting arguments and should each have a reference (possibly to multiple works).



When you extrapolate this out to a 20 page paper, there might be 40 5-sentence paragraphs. The first paragraph and the last paragraph may not have citations also (as again they are the original ideas). Finally, some works would be cited in multiple places. That might put the total number of unique references in a 20 page paper at around 80-100. I don't think I have ever seen an undergraduate paper get to that number, but I also write citation needed an awful lot.






share|improve this answer































    1














    Yes and no. This is highly field dependent. Here are two examples:




    1. Mastering Chess and Shogi by Self-Play with a
      General Reinforcement Learning Algorithm. This is an artificial intelligence paper about creating a neural network engine that plays Chess & Shogi better than conventional engines. Notice that it starts by citing a lot of previous articles in the introduction, but by the time it goes into detail about how AlphaZero is created and trained, there are much fewer citations. This is natural: after all, the authors are doing something that hasn't been done before, so one cannot expect there to be references.


    2. Writing Horses into
      American Civil War History. Here we have a history paper about horses during the American Civil War. Now we see citations everywhere. The entire paper is filled with it, almost uniformly. Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to find a paragraph that doesn't have three citations.



    Since expectations vary by field, the answer to your question is also going to depend on your field. But there's an easy shortcut: since your lecturer is requesting 3 citations a paper, you are probably in a field more akin to history and less to artificial intelligence. In that case, three citations per paragraph is not excessive, and you should conform to the field's standards.






    share|improve this answer
























      Your Answer








      StackExchange.ready(function() {
      var channelOptions = {
      tags: "".split(" "),
      id: "415"
      };
      initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

      StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
      // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
      if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
      StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
      createEditor();
      });
      }
      else {
      createEditor();
      }
      });

      function createEditor() {
      StackExchange.prepareEditor({
      heartbeatType: 'answer',
      autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
      convertImagesToLinks: true,
      noModals: true,
      showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
      reputationToPostImages: 10,
      bindNavPrevention: true,
      postfix: "",
      imageUploader: {
      brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
      contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
      allowUrls: true
      },
      noCode: true, onDemand: true,
      discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
      ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
      });


      }
      });






      Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.










      draft saved

      draft discarded


















      StackExchange.ready(
      function () {
      StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2facademia.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f127839%2fis-three-citations-per-paragraph-excessive-for-undergraduate-research-paper%23new-answer', 'question_page');
      }
      );

      Post as a guest















      Required, but never shown

























      5 Answers
      5






      active

      oldest

      votes








      5 Answers
      5






      active

      oldest

      votes









      active

      oldest

      votes






      active

      oldest

      votes









      12














      If you are asking whether it is a general "best practice" for a research paper at any level to have three citations per paragraph: no, it is not. In any level research paper, you should cite as often (equivalently, as little) as necessary in order to inform the reader of relevant prior work. If seven papers are relevant to what you are saying in a given sentence, you should cite those seven papers. If in a paragraph you are not saying anything that makes reference to or would be aided by making reference to prior literature, then there should be no citations in the paragraph. You never insert citations to meet numerical requirements.



      However, this is an assignment for a course, so the best practice is whatever your instructor told you.




      The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.




      No, you can ask your instructor which of the above is what she wants. I encourage you to do so.






      share|improve this answer


























      • This is true for professional-level work, but undergraduate term papers don't generally include contextualization in the literature because they don't generally make new contributions to the field.

        – Elizabeth Henning
        9 hours ago











      • @ElizabethHenning Even if you don't add anything new, isn't it still good to provide context?

        – JAB
        6 hours ago






      • 1





        @JAB Of course, but advice like "three citations per paragraph" leads me to believe that the OP is a Writing 101 course where the assignment is to do independent reading on a topic and then write it up in an "academic style" with citations back to the source material. This is very different from a survey paper or doing original research and providing citations in a lit review.

        – Elizabeth Henning
        6 hours ago


















      12














      If you are asking whether it is a general "best practice" for a research paper at any level to have three citations per paragraph: no, it is not. In any level research paper, you should cite as often (equivalently, as little) as necessary in order to inform the reader of relevant prior work. If seven papers are relevant to what you are saying in a given sentence, you should cite those seven papers. If in a paragraph you are not saying anything that makes reference to or would be aided by making reference to prior literature, then there should be no citations in the paragraph. You never insert citations to meet numerical requirements.



      However, this is an assignment for a course, so the best practice is whatever your instructor told you.




      The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.




      No, you can ask your instructor which of the above is what she wants. I encourage you to do so.






      share|improve this answer


























      • This is true for professional-level work, but undergraduate term papers don't generally include contextualization in the literature because they don't generally make new contributions to the field.

        – Elizabeth Henning
        9 hours ago











      • @ElizabethHenning Even if you don't add anything new, isn't it still good to provide context?

        – JAB
        6 hours ago






      • 1





        @JAB Of course, but advice like "three citations per paragraph" leads me to believe that the OP is a Writing 101 course where the assignment is to do independent reading on a topic and then write it up in an "academic style" with citations back to the source material. This is very different from a survey paper or doing original research and providing citations in a lit review.

        – Elizabeth Henning
        6 hours ago
















      12












      12








      12







      If you are asking whether it is a general "best practice" for a research paper at any level to have three citations per paragraph: no, it is not. In any level research paper, you should cite as often (equivalently, as little) as necessary in order to inform the reader of relevant prior work. If seven papers are relevant to what you are saying in a given sentence, you should cite those seven papers. If in a paragraph you are not saying anything that makes reference to or would be aided by making reference to prior literature, then there should be no citations in the paragraph. You never insert citations to meet numerical requirements.



      However, this is an assignment for a course, so the best practice is whatever your instructor told you.




      The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.




      No, you can ask your instructor which of the above is what she wants. I encourage you to do so.






      share|improve this answer















      If you are asking whether it is a general "best practice" for a research paper at any level to have three citations per paragraph: no, it is not. In any level research paper, you should cite as often (equivalently, as little) as necessary in order to inform the reader of relevant prior work. If seven papers are relevant to what you are saying in a given sentence, you should cite those seven papers. If in a paragraph you are not saying anything that makes reference to or would be aided by making reference to prior literature, then there should be no citations in the paragraph. You never insert citations to meet numerical requirements.



      However, this is an assignment for a course, so the best practice is whatever your instructor told you.




      The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.




      No, you can ask your instructor which of the above is what she wants. I encourage you to do so.







      share|improve this answer














      share|improve this answer



      share|improve this answer








      edited 7 hours ago

























      answered 9 hours ago









      Pete L. ClarkPete L. Clark

      117k23316476




      117k23316476













      • This is true for professional-level work, but undergraduate term papers don't generally include contextualization in the literature because they don't generally make new contributions to the field.

        – Elizabeth Henning
        9 hours ago











      • @ElizabethHenning Even if you don't add anything new, isn't it still good to provide context?

        – JAB
        6 hours ago






      • 1





        @JAB Of course, but advice like "three citations per paragraph" leads me to believe that the OP is a Writing 101 course where the assignment is to do independent reading on a topic and then write it up in an "academic style" with citations back to the source material. This is very different from a survey paper or doing original research and providing citations in a lit review.

        – Elizabeth Henning
        6 hours ago





















      • This is true for professional-level work, but undergraduate term papers don't generally include contextualization in the literature because they don't generally make new contributions to the field.

        – Elizabeth Henning
        9 hours ago











      • @ElizabethHenning Even if you don't add anything new, isn't it still good to provide context?

        – JAB
        6 hours ago






      • 1





        @JAB Of course, but advice like "three citations per paragraph" leads me to believe that the OP is a Writing 101 course where the assignment is to do independent reading on a topic and then write it up in an "academic style" with citations back to the source material. This is very different from a survey paper or doing original research and providing citations in a lit review.

        – Elizabeth Henning
        6 hours ago



















      This is true for professional-level work, but undergraduate term papers don't generally include contextualization in the literature because they don't generally make new contributions to the field.

      – Elizabeth Henning
      9 hours ago





      This is true for professional-level work, but undergraduate term papers don't generally include contextualization in the literature because they don't generally make new contributions to the field.

      – Elizabeth Henning
      9 hours ago













      @ElizabethHenning Even if you don't add anything new, isn't it still good to provide context?

      – JAB
      6 hours ago





      @ElizabethHenning Even if you don't add anything new, isn't it still good to provide context?

      – JAB
      6 hours ago




      1




      1





      @JAB Of course, but advice like "three citations per paragraph" leads me to believe that the OP is a Writing 101 course where the assignment is to do independent reading on a topic and then write it up in an "academic style" with citations back to the source material. This is very different from a survey paper or doing original research and providing citations in a lit review.

      – Elizabeth Henning
      6 hours ago







      @JAB Of course, but advice like "three citations per paragraph" leads me to believe that the OP is a Writing 101 course where the assignment is to do independent reading on a topic and then write it up in an "academic style" with citations back to the source material. This is very different from a survey paper or doing original research and providing citations in a lit review.

      – Elizabeth Henning
      6 hours ago













      3














      Trying to get the people here between you and your instructor will annoy her even more. Whether it is excessive or not, it is her requirements that matter.



      But I'll just guess that she wants to push you a bit to give you good habits of backing up everything you say in your paper using the available literature. She probably also wants you to do a lot of literature searching.



      Treat it as something like a "wind-sprint" ordered by a football coach to give you endurance and prepare you for the big game. As Nike said: Just. Do. It.






      share|improve this answer
























      • I don't plan on using anything here against anyone. I just want to get a basic feel for what's generally expected. Her style of communication isn't the clearest, and I'm expecting that this is one of her many sins of omission.

        – Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog
        10 hours ago
















      3














      Trying to get the people here between you and your instructor will annoy her even more. Whether it is excessive or not, it is her requirements that matter.



      But I'll just guess that she wants to push you a bit to give you good habits of backing up everything you say in your paper using the available literature. She probably also wants you to do a lot of literature searching.



      Treat it as something like a "wind-sprint" ordered by a football coach to give you endurance and prepare you for the big game. As Nike said: Just. Do. It.






      share|improve this answer
























      • I don't plan on using anything here against anyone. I just want to get a basic feel for what's generally expected. Her style of communication isn't the clearest, and I'm expecting that this is one of her many sins of omission.

        – Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog
        10 hours ago














      3












      3








      3







      Trying to get the people here between you and your instructor will annoy her even more. Whether it is excessive or not, it is her requirements that matter.



      But I'll just guess that she wants to push you a bit to give you good habits of backing up everything you say in your paper using the available literature. She probably also wants you to do a lot of literature searching.



      Treat it as something like a "wind-sprint" ordered by a football coach to give you endurance and prepare you for the big game. As Nike said: Just. Do. It.






      share|improve this answer













      Trying to get the people here between you and your instructor will annoy her even more. Whether it is excessive or not, it is her requirements that matter.



      But I'll just guess that she wants to push you a bit to give you good habits of backing up everything you say in your paper using the available literature. She probably also wants you to do a lot of literature searching.



      Treat it as something like a "wind-sprint" ordered by a football coach to give you endurance and prepare you for the big game. As Nike said: Just. Do. It.







      share|improve this answer












      share|improve this answer



      share|improve this answer










      answered 10 hours ago









      BuffyBuffy

      56.9k17179274




      56.9k17179274













      • I don't plan on using anything here against anyone. I just want to get a basic feel for what's generally expected. Her style of communication isn't the clearest, and I'm expecting that this is one of her many sins of omission.

        – Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog
        10 hours ago



















      • I don't plan on using anything here against anyone. I just want to get a basic feel for what's generally expected. Her style of communication isn't the clearest, and I'm expecting that this is one of her many sins of omission.

        – Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog
        10 hours ago

















      I don't plan on using anything here against anyone. I just want to get a basic feel for what's generally expected. Her style of communication isn't the clearest, and I'm expecting that this is one of her many sins of omission.

      – Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog
      10 hours ago





      I don't plan on using anything here against anyone. I just want to get a basic feel for what's generally expected. Her style of communication isn't the clearest, and I'm expecting that this is one of her many sins of omission.

      – Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog
      10 hours ago











      3














      First of all, the number of citations needed doesn't have anything to do with whether it's undergraduate work or a professional article. My guess from what little you've said is that she gave you a rule of thumb that you're taking too literally.



      Citations are used to support a statement you make with an authoritative source, since presumably you aren't an authority. Three citations per paragraph would mean that you are synthesizing a variety of sources and not relying on any one source for long chunks of text, which could border on plagiarism. As long as you are making good use of multiple sources and citing them properly, I doubt that she is going to count the exact number of citations per paragraph.






      share|improve this answer
























      • Hmmm. On the other hand, reasonable as it sounds, you won't be the one with the marking pen.

        – Buffy
        9 hours ago
















      3














      First of all, the number of citations needed doesn't have anything to do with whether it's undergraduate work or a professional article. My guess from what little you've said is that she gave you a rule of thumb that you're taking too literally.



      Citations are used to support a statement you make with an authoritative source, since presumably you aren't an authority. Three citations per paragraph would mean that you are synthesizing a variety of sources and not relying on any one source for long chunks of text, which could border on plagiarism. As long as you are making good use of multiple sources and citing them properly, I doubt that she is going to count the exact number of citations per paragraph.






      share|improve this answer
























      • Hmmm. On the other hand, reasonable as it sounds, you won't be the one with the marking pen.

        – Buffy
        9 hours ago














      3












      3








      3







      First of all, the number of citations needed doesn't have anything to do with whether it's undergraduate work or a professional article. My guess from what little you've said is that she gave you a rule of thumb that you're taking too literally.



      Citations are used to support a statement you make with an authoritative source, since presumably you aren't an authority. Three citations per paragraph would mean that you are synthesizing a variety of sources and not relying on any one source for long chunks of text, which could border on plagiarism. As long as you are making good use of multiple sources and citing them properly, I doubt that she is going to count the exact number of citations per paragraph.






      share|improve this answer













      First of all, the number of citations needed doesn't have anything to do with whether it's undergraduate work or a professional article. My guess from what little you've said is that she gave you a rule of thumb that you're taking too literally.



      Citations are used to support a statement you make with an authoritative source, since presumably you aren't an authority. Three citations per paragraph would mean that you are synthesizing a variety of sources and not relying on any one source for long chunks of text, which could border on plagiarism. As long as you are making good use of multiple sources and citing them properly, I doubt that she is going to count the exact number of citations per paragraph.







      share|improve this answer












      share|improve this answer



      share|improve this answer










      answered 10 hours ago









      Elizabeth HenningElizabeth Henning

      6,07311033




      6,07311033













      • Hmmm. On the other hand, reasonable as it sounds, you won't be the one with the marking pen.

        – Buffy
        9 hours ago



















      • Hmmm. On the other hand, reasonable as it sounds, you won't be the one with the marking pen.

        – Buffy
        9 hours ago

















      Hmmm. On the other hand, reasonable as it sounds, you won't be the one with the marking pen.

      – Buffy
      9 hours ago





      Hmmm. On the other hand, reasonable as it sounds, you won't be the one with the marking pen.

      – Buffy
      9 hours ago











      2














      I am sure this is somewhat field dependent, but 3 citations per paragraph seems like perfectly reasonable advice to give. In terms of general advice, paragraphs have 5 sentences (yes sometimes they have more and sometimes they have less, but we are talking in generalities). The first sentence is a topic sentence and the last is a concluding sentence. These should be (to continue with the sweeping generalities) original ideas that do not require citations. The other 3 sentences are you supporting arguments and should each have a reference (possibly to multiple works).



      When you extrapolate this out to a 20 page paper, there might be 40 5-sentence paragraphs. The first paragraph and the last paragraph may not have citations also (as again they are the original ideas). Finally, some works would be cited in multiple places. That might put the total number of unique references in a 20 page paper at around 80-100. I don't think I have ever seen an undergraduate paper get to that number, but I also write citation needed an awful lot.






      share|improve this answer




























        2














        I am sure this is somewhat field dependent, but 3 citations per paragraph seems like perfectly reasonable advice to give. In terms of general advice, paragraphs have 5 sentences (yes sometimes they have more and sometimes they have less, but we are talking in generalities). The first sentence is a topic sentence and the last is a concluding sentence. These should be (to continue with the sweeping generalities) original ideas that do not require citations. The other 3 sentences are you supporting arguments and should each have a reference (possibly to multiple works).



        When you extrapolate this out to a 20 page paper, there might be 40 5-sentence paragraphs. The first paragraph and the last paragraph may not have citations also (as again they are the original ideas). Finally, some works would be cited in multiple places. That might put the total number of unique references in a 20 page paper at around 80-100. I don't think I have ever seen an undergraduate paper get to that number, but I also write citation needed an awful lot.






        share|improve this answer


























          2












          2








          2







          I am sure this is somewhat field dependent, but 3 citations per paragraph seems like perfectly reasonable advice to give. In terms of general advice, paragraphs have 5 sentences (yes sometimes they have more and sometimes they have less, but we are talking in generalities). The first sentence is a topic sentence and the last is a concluding sentence. These should be (to continue with the sweeping generalities) original ideas that do not require citations. The other 3 sentences are you supporting arguments and should each have a reference (possibly to multiple works).



          When you extrapolate this out to a 20 page paper, there might be 40 5-sentence paragraphs. The first paragraph and the last paragraph may not have citations also (as again they are the original ideas). Finally, some works would be cited in multiple places. That might put the total number of unique references in a 20 page paper at around 80-100. I don't think I have ever seen an undergraduate paper get to that number, but I also write citation needed an awful lot.






          share|improve this answer













          I am sure this is somewhat field dependent, but 3 citations per paragraph seems like perfectly reasonable advice to give. In terms of general advice, paragraphs have 5 sentences (yes sometimes they have more and sometimes they have less, but we are talking in generalities). The first sentence is a topic sentence and the last is a concluding sentence. These should be (to continue with the sweeping generalities) original ideas that do not require citations. The other 3 sentences are you supporting arguments and should each have a reference (possibly to multiple works).



          When you extrapolate this out to a 20 page paper, there might be 40 5-sentence paragraphs. The first paragraph and the last paragraph may not have citations also (as again they are the original ideas). Finally, some works would be cited in multiple places. That might put the total number of unique references in a 20 page paper at around 80-100. I don't think I have ever seen an undergraduate paper get to that number, but I also write citation needed an awful lot.







          share|improve this answer












          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer










          answered 8 hours ago









          StrongBadStrongBad

          86.9k24217425




          86.9k24217425























              1














              Yes and no. This is highly field dependent. Here are two examples:




              1. Mastering Chess and Shogi by Self-Play with a
                General Reinforcement Learning Algorithm. This is an artificial intelligence paper about creating a neural network engine that plays Chess & Shogi better than conventional engines. Notice that it starts by citing a lot of previous articles in the introduction, but by the time it goes into detail about how AlphaZero is created and trained, there are much fewer citations. This is natural: after all, the authors are doing something that hasn't been done before, so one cannot expect there to be references.


              2. Writing Horses into
                American Civil War History. Here we have a history paper about horses during the American Civil War. Now we see citations everywhere. The entire paper is filled with it, almost uniformly. Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to find a paragraph that doesn't have three citations.



              Since expectations vary by field, the answer to your question is also going to depend on your field. But there's an easy shortcut: since your lecturer is requesting 3 citations a paper, you are probably in a field more akin to history and less to artificial intelligence. In that case, three citations per paragraph is not excessive, and you should conform to the field's standards.






              share|improve this answer




























                1














                Yes and no. This is highly field dependent. Here are two examples:




                1. Mastering Chess and Shogi by Self-Play with a
                  General Reinforcement Learning Algorithm. This is an artificial intelligence paper about creating a neural network engine that plays Chess & Shogi better than conventional engines. Notice that it starts by citing a lot of previous articles in the introduction, but by the time it goes into detail about how AlphaZero is created and trained, there are much fewer citations. This is natural: after all, the authors are doing something that hasn't been done before, so one cannot expect there to be references.


                2. Writing Horses into
                  American Civil War History. Here we have a history paper about horses during the American Civil War. Now we see citations everywhere. The entire paper is filled with it, almost uniformly. Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to find a paragraph that doesn't have three citations.



                Since expectations vary by field, the answer to your question is also going to depend on your field. But there's an easy shortcut: since your lecturer is requesting 3 citations a paper, you are probably in a field more akin to history and less to artificial intelligence. In that case, three citations per paragraph is not excessive, and you should conform to the field's standards.






                share|improve this answer


























                  1












                  1








                  1







                  Yes and no. This is highly field dependent. Here are two examples:




                  1. Mastering Chess and Shogi by Self-Play with a
                    General Reinforcement Learning Algorithm. This is an artificial intelligence paper about creating a neural network engine that plays Chess & Shogi better than conventional engines. Notice that it starts by citing a lot of previous articles in the introduction, but by the time it goes into detail about how AlphaZero is created and trained, there are much fewer citations. This is natural: after all, the authors are doing something that hasn't been done before, so one cannot expect there to be references.


                  2. Writing Horses into
                    American Civil War History. Here we have a history paper about horses during the American Civil War. Now we see citations everywhere. The entire paper is filled with it, almost uniformly. Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to find a paragraph that doesn't have three citations.



                  Since expectations vary by field, the answer to your question is also going to depend on your field. But there's an easy shortcut: since your lecturer is requesting 3 citations a paper, you are probably in a field more akin to history and less to artificial intelligence. In that case, three citations per paragraph is not excessive, and you should conform to the field's standards.






                  share|improve this answer













                  Yes and no. This is highly field dependent. Here are two examples:




                  1. Mastering Chess and Shogi by Self-Play with a
                    General Reinforcement Learning Algorithm. This is an artificial intelligence paper about creating a neural network engine that plays Chess & Shogi better than conventional engines. Notice that it starts by citing a lot of previous articles in the introduction, but by the time it goes into detail about how AlphaZero is created and trained, there are much fewer citations. This is natural: after all, the authors are doing something that hasn't been done before, so one cannot expect there to be references.


                  2. Writing Horses into
                    American Civil War History. Here we have a history paper about horses during the American Civil War. Now we see citations everywhere. The entire paper is filled with it, almost uniformly. Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to find a paragraph that doesn't have three citations.



                  Since expectations vary by field, the answer to your question is also going to depend on your field. But there's an easy shortcut: since your lecturer is requesting 3 citations a paper, you are probably in a field more akin to history and less to artificial intelligence. In that case, three citations per paragraph is not excessive, and you should conform to the field's standards.







                  share|improve this answer












                  share|improve this answer



                  share|improve this answer










                  answered 1 hour ago









                  AllureAllure

                  34.4k19103156




                  34.4k19103156






















                      Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.










                      draft saved

                      draft discarded


















                      Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.













                      Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.












                      Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
















                      Thanks for contributing an answer to Academia Stack Exchange!


                      • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

                      But avoid



                      • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

                      • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


                      To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




                      draft saved


                      draft discarded














                      StackExchange.ready(
                      function () {
                      StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2facademia.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f127839%2fis-three-citations-per-paragraph-excessive-for-undergraduate-research-paper%23new-answer', 'question_page');
                      }
                      );

                      Post as a guest















                      Required, but never shown





















































                      Required, but never shown














                      Required, but never shown












                      Required, but never shown







                      Required, but never shown

































                      Required, but never shown














                      Required, but never shown












                      Required, but never shown







                      Required, but never shown







                      Popular posts from this blog

                      Masuk log Menu navigasi

                      Identifying “long and narrow” polygons in with PostGISlength and width of polygonWhy postgis st_overlaps reports Qgis' “avoid intersections” generated polygon as overlapping with others?Adjusting polygons to boundary and filling holesDrawing polygons with fixed area?How to remove spikes in Polygons with PostGISDeleting sliver polygons after difference operation in QGIS?Snapping boundaries in PostGISSplit polygon into parts adding attributes based on underlying polygon in QGISSplitting overlap between polygons and assign to nearest polygon using PostGIS?Expanding polygons and clipping at midpoint?Removing Intersection of Buffers in Same Layers

                      Старые Смолеговицы Содержание История | География | Демография | Достопримечательности | Примечания | НавигацияHGЯOLHGЯOL41 206 832 01641 606 406 141Административно-территориальное деление Ленинградской области«Переписная оброчная книга Водской пятины 1500 года», С. 793«Карта Ингерманландии: Ивангорода, Яма, Копорья, Нотеборга», по материалам 1676 г.«Генеральная карта провинции Ингерманландии» Э. Белинга и А. Андерсина, 1704 г., составлена по материалам 1678 г.«Географический чертёж над Ижорскою землей со своими городами» Адриана Шонбека 1705 г.Новая и достоверная всей Ингерманландии ланткарта. Грав. А. Ростовцев. СПб., 1727 г.Топографическая карта Санкт-Петербургской губернии. 5-и верстка. Шуберт. 1834 г.Описание Санкт-Петербургской губернии по уездам и станамСпецкарта западной части России Ф. Ф. Шуберта. 1844 г.Алфавитный список селений по уездам и станам С.-Петербургской губернииСписки населённых мест Российской Империи, составленные и издаваемые центральным статистическим комитетом министерства внутренних дел. XXXVII. Санкт-Петербургская губерния. По состоянию на 1862 год. СПб. 1864. С. 203Материалы по статистике народного хозяйства в С.-Петербургской губернии. Вып. IX. Частновладельческое хозяйство в Ямбургском уезде. СПб, 1888, С. 146, С. 2, 7, 54Положение о гербе муниципального образования Курское сельское поселениеСправочник истории административно-территориального деления Ленинградской области.Топографическая карта Ленинградской области, квадрат О-35-23-В (Хотыницы), 1930 г.АрхивированоАдминистративно-территориальное деление Ленинградской области. — Л., 1933, С. 27, 198АрхивированоАдминистративно-экономический справочник по Ленинградской области. — Л., 1936, с. 219АрхивированоАдминистративно-территориальное деление Ленинградской области. — Л., 1966, с. 175АрхивированоАдминистративно-территориальное деление Ленинградской области. — Лениздат, 1973, С. 180АрхивированоАдминистративно-территориальное деление Ленинградской области. — Лениздат, 1990, ISBN 5-289-00612-5, С. 38АрхивированоАдминистративно-территориальное деление Ленинградской области. — СПб., 2007, с. 60АрхивированоКоряков Юрий База данных «Этно-языковой состав населённых пунктов России». Ленинградская область.Административно-территориальное деление Ленинградской области. — СПб, 1997, ISBN 5-86153-055-6, С. 41АрхивированоКультовый комплекс Старые Смолеговицы // Электронная энциклопедия ЭрмитажаПроблемы выявления, изучения и сохранения культовых комплексов с каменными крестами: по материалам работ 2016-2017 гг. в Ленинградской области