Source text:
No reference mentioned (From a book on Japanese economy)
Writer’s text:
Japanese economic process the period of a high growth in 1950 – 1977, and they experienced the slowdown of growth and stable growth in 1978 – 1990.
Writer’s comment:
I do not need to give references because I copied and then translated these sentences from Japanese.
Student’s comment:
- That’s not a good idea. In my BA, I did a lot of…, I read a little bit of German as well, and in religious studies, there is a lot of French and German writing, and in papers I would always cite the original text, and then footnote, give the translation. I don’t agree with this though. (A Master’s student in Library & Information Studies)
- Well, that’s just cultural misunderstanding. I’m impressed with this list translation. (Another speaker: This is from a Korean student.) Well, then I’m not sure that they did the translation, I can find the website where graduate students would do it for them for free…I think in Korea, more than just students think it’s acceptable, I think professors find it acceptable, and that’s in many there are, this is not something that students receive negative feedback on. It’s dealt explicitly, I don’t speak Korean, so and I haven’t set in the classroom, so I can’t say. But tacitly I think it’s understood at multiple levels, that this is an acceptable behavior. (A PhD student in Education)
Faculty member’s comment:
- No you’re supposed to put the free translation from the author and give the actual reference. If you read and take the sentence from somebody and you translated, you give the reference for free translation. (A professor in Education)
- Let me start with critiquing the writer’s view. The writer there is wrong in the sense that the writer admits to copying the material and the question of translation from one language to another, I think is irrelevant to citing a source. The student can take credit for doing the translation and there’s absolutely standard approach in both style manuals to doing that. You cite your source, and you annotate the source through with translation in mind, that simple. And with the respect to the text, I believe that specific statistical claims of this sort are exactly the kind of claim that is subject to some debate and therefore should be cited, if only to say which kind of source this writer looking at, and can I go other sources and verify it, or look for different views. Again as courtesy to reader, that’s a very good item to cite a source to support their view and help the reader. (A professor in Education).
I agree that this information needs to be cited. The fact that it was translated may be relevant to how to cite, but not IF to cite. This claim, and the research that produced this claim, were done by someone else. Also, a citation would give validity to this information. As a reader, I wonder: Where did the research for this information come from? How do I know if it is reliable? Is this statement a conclusion the writer came to after looking at raw data, or is it a conclusion taken directly from someone else? Based on the writer’s comment, it seems that though translated, this information was taken directly from someone else. Yet another reason to cite.
I am interested by the idea that this is a cultural misunderstanding. I would like to know more about possible cultural differences regarding what/how to cite information. Regardless though, if this was written at UBC, then it needs to be cited. Hopefully, this can be a positive learning experience and inform future citation practice. (A Master’s student in Education)