Past 2nd-Year Special Topics
ISP250H5 Special Topics: Joining the Conversation: Citation and Source-Use in Academic Writing
- Taught by Dr. Jonathan Vroom
- Winter 2025
- Prerequisite: ISP100H5
- Distribution requirement for Social Science
Students often view citation as this annoying thing they have to add to their writing after they’ve constructed an argument, as a means of supporting the points they’ve made. In this course, students will learn that citation is not a supplement that we add to our writing. Rather, citation is fundamental to the nature of academic writing. The main purpose of this course, therefore, is to examine the various dimensions of citation in academic writing—the why and the how of using sources in academic texts. We will examine scholarship on the various issues related to the act of citation—such as intertextuality, stance, reporting signals, citation forms, citation functions, citation and reading, citation and genres, citation and authority, academic integrity, citation and AI, … and more! By the end of the course, student will have a better understanding of the nature of citation. What is more, they will also understand how to use sources more effectively in their own writing, so that they can understand how to better summarize, compare, and respond to their sources--and ultimately find their voice in the scholarly conversations of their academic disciplines.