The Use of In-text Citations and Signal Phrases

The Use of In-text citations, Signal Phrases 

In the following analytical paper, three different issues will be analyzed in depth: the use of in-text citations, and signal phrases. Each of these issues will be exemplified through instances extracted from the article “Providing increased access to English L2 students of computer science at a South African University.US-China Education Review” by Dalvit,L., Murray, S. and Terzoli, A. (2005).

According to the American Psychological Association (2010), in-text citations are a combination of the author’s surname, the date of publication as well as the location reference, separated by commas. In-text citations can be classified into paraphrased ones and direct quotes; there are some variations, though. As regards the paraphrased ones, they are characterized by the inclusion of dates, and they can be added in a text in two different ways. Firstly, the author’s name can be included in a signal phrase and the date needs to be written between parentheses. An example of this in the text under analysis is, “(…) According to Heugh (2002), little has changed since the end of Apartheid.(…)” (Dalvit, L., Murray, S. & Terzoli, A., 2005). Secondly, if the writer makes reference to a study, he/she must list in the parentheses not only the author’s surname but also the year. An instance of the text being analyzed is, “(…) As far as language problems are concerned, the current approach to foundation programmes in South Africa is mainly informed by studies in the Humanities (Boughey, 2002) and seems to address the particular problems of students in that field (e.g. internalizing the values of the academic world, adopting a style of writing which is considerably different to common language, mastering specific syntactic structures etc.).(…)”(Dalvit et al.). Considering direct quotes, they need the author’s surname, date of publication and the abbreviation p. or pp. with the page number(s), but no examples of them were found in the analyzed document.

            It is worth mentioning at this stage some of the variations of these in-text citations, which occur when there are several writers, institutions or groups as authors. When a research article has several authors, their names are listed completely the first time the source is mentioned. In later references of the same source, the first author’s surname is followed by et al., everything between parentheses. In this paper, the first example taken from the text under analysis is followed by all the authors’ last names (see lines 13-14), but the second time citations were included for the sake of exemplification, there appears the surname of the first author accompanied by the abbreviation et al. (see line 20). One last variation is that in which the author is an institution or group. The first time they are cited, the full name followed by its abbreviation and year of publication must be included in parentheses. In subsequent mentions of this source, only abbreviation can be employed. The following is an instance of the text being analyzed, “(…)Providing access to ICT to the African1 component of the south African population is a priority for the Government, and education has a key role to play (Department of Education and Department of Communication, 2001). (…)”(Dalvit et al).

            Signal phrases can also be used to introduce quotations or citations in texts. In the one by Dalvit et al., the following signal phrase appears, “(…) According to Heugh (2002), little has changed since the end of Apartheid. The average level of English proficiency within the African community is still comparatively low. (…)”(Dalvit et al.).

            With respect to reference lists, they are added at the end of a document, and they account for in-text citations which have appeared in that document. Observing the reference list of the document being analyzed, it shows basic principles to be considered when making it. If a book is to be included in this list, the author, publication date, title and subtitle, place of publication and publisher must appear. An example taken from the reference list of the document under analysis is, “Halliday, M.A.K. and Martin, J.R. (1993). Writing Science: Literacy and Discursive Power. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press” (Dalvit et al.).

References

Dalvit,L., Murray, S. and Terzoli, A. (2005). Providing increased access to English L2 students of computer science at a South African University.  US-China Education Review, Sep.2005, Vol 2 (9)