Source text:
From Kelly, M. K. (1991).
Writer’s text:
Scorsese’s films are not so preoccupied with the theme of love as they are with the darker issues of New York such as violence and urban alienation.
Writer’s comment:
“Urban alienation” was a phrase I took from a book that I read. I thought that was a neat way of calling it. I did not refer to the source because it’s a common term that people use.
Student’s comment:
- But it’s so, it’s already in like… they only have to type it into the computer twice, in order to get a footnote or a cite out of it, so I would say cite it. I mean what’s the worst alternative is that you get… there is the suggestion that it’s plagiarized, so… five seconds to put in Kelly or… (A Master’s student in Library & Information Studies)
- I’ve seen that phrase cross multiple texts than be cited. This is not, this is like, try to copy, right, something. It’s like “ah, no, that’s out there, that’s newspapers, magazines.” So no need to put citation.(A PhD student in Education)
Faculty member’s comment:
- He thought it’s a neat term; it’s a neat term then it’s not so common. You would not think, ‘oh that’s a neat term. I already use it.’ I will ask the student to cite. (A professor in Education)
- I tend to agree with the writer that it seems to me to be a very everyday part of English language. I can put the two parts of the phrase together and calculate or compute probably an easy meaning. It doesn’t seem puzzling to me. I would expect to read it in a newspaper. (A professor in Education)
Social alienation means “a condition in social relationships reflected by a low degree of integration “. I tend to agree with the writer and the second professor, this term is very common and we can easily come across it when reading papers. I believe the meaning of this term is obvious for it is simply the combination of two words. Therefore, it would cause no reading difficulties. Maybe when the term was first introduced, it need to be cited every time when people use it, but once it emerges in people’s daily conversation spontaneously, there is no need to cite them every time. This case can be extended to some particular social phenomenon such as “urbanization”, nobody would use a citation on this term since it has already been in our daily conversation. Of course it would be great if the student can refer to the source, but I wouldn’t be too particular about this. However, the writer should not choose to use certain term without citation just because it was neat to say it. Writers also need to respect the resource and consider the acceptance of readers, just in case of confusion and misunderstanding. (A graduate in Education)