Invention - Cite Brackets Style
- Brackets (かっこ) style is
- easiest, and the only option for slides and titles
- See Citation General Rules for alternatives.
Basics of Brackets style
Type | Content | Example |
---|---|---|
A book | name and year | (Suzuki, 2015) |
A newspaper article | name, year, month day | (Suzuki, 2015, April 2) |
A TED Talk | name, year, month | (Suzuki, 2015, April) |
No date? | use n.d. | (Suzuki, n.d.) |
No author? | use the title | (“Title,” 2015) |
No title or date? | use title+n.d. | (“Title,” n.d.) |
No author, Japanese title? | use romaji | (“Romaji no daimei,” 2015) |
No author or date? | Title + n.d. | (“Title,” n.d.) |
2 authors? | use “&” | (Suzuki & Jones, 2015) |
3+ authors? | use “et al.,” | (Suzuki et al., 2015) |
2+ sources | use semicolon (;) | (Tanaka, 2003; Suzuki, 2015) |
same name/year | a b | (Suzuki, 2015a) … (Suzuki, 2015b). |
Same no date? | -a, -b | (Suzuki, n.d.-a) … (Suzuki, n.d.-b). |
“Direct quote”? | use page number | “I have a dream” (King, 2015, p.23) |
Common mistakes
- Check spaces and commas and periods carefully!
- Family name, no initials
- OK: (Suzuki, 2012)
- NO: ~~(Hiroki, S., 2012) ~~
- NO:
(Suzuki, Hiroki, 2012)
- Give the right amount of date.
- Books are year only
- Newspapers are year, month day.
- Others vary. Check the examples
- Title problems
- Comma inside quotes
- (“Title,” n.d.)
- (“Title”, n.d.)
- Comma inside quotes
- Shorten long titles
- 1 word is enough.
- 6 words max. 3 words max if long words.
- Use your judgement - is it making the sentence hard to read?
- This is too long (“The impact of global warming on river dolphins in the Amazon,” n.d.)
- This is better (“The impact,” n.d.)
Citation Verb Alternatives
Bored of “said”?
Choose based on your field (Brexina, 2012)
- Arts Writers
- Most common: pointed out, noted, argued, suggested, stated, observed, explained
- Also used: claimed, said, remarked, maintained, showed, proposed, stressed, mentioned
- Science Writers
- use fewer verbs more often:
- Most common: pointed out, showed
- Also used: argued, emphasized, observed, discussed
Choose based on confidence
- “The author is sure, and I believe them”:
- said, mentioned, observed
- concluded, wrote
- reported, emphasized, pointed
- out, stressed, noted
- illustrated, established
- described, showed, confirmed
- stated, indicated
- demonstrated, found
- “The author is unsure, or I’m not sure about the author”:
- assumed, believed, suggested, maintained, claimed
- argued, reasoned, speculated, implied, posited
- proposed, hypothesized, postulated, contended
- indicated, estimated, asserted
These verbs have more specific meaning:
* Agree: agreed, confirmed
* Disagree: disagreed, rejected, replied, contradicted, responded, questioned, challenged, answered
* Questions: asked, wondered, questioned whether
* Suggestions: suggested, advised, proposed, recommended
* Predictions: predicted, speculated, warned that X will Y
* Admit Problems: admitted, acknowledged * These verbs say what the author did
* highlighted the fact that
* made the case that
* presented evidence that
Common mistakes
- Careful of “that”
- You can use “said that” or “argued that” or “claimed that” or “found that”
- “that” means more or less “って” as in “って言った”
- it’s for quoting ideas and facts
- However, some verbs can break easily
- they prefer an object that isn’t a fact or quote
- avoid “described that” and try “described an experiment”
- avoid “outlined that” and try “outlined a plan”
- avoid “discussed that” and try “discussed the idea”
- avoid “rejected that” and try “rejected the idea”
- Once you’ve made the verb happy, you can then use “that” to give detail
- “described an experiment (that)”
- “outlined a plan (that)”
- “discussed the idea (that)”
- “rejected the idea (that)”
- Don’t use “suggested that” if it’s not a suggestion.
- Don’t use “found that” if it’s not a finding (a research result)
- If it doubt, use “said”
- You can use “said that” or “argued that” or “claimed that” or “found that”
- Careful of verb tense choice
- Is it true, relevant, and recent? Maybe use present (says) or perfect (has said). Maybe!
- Otherwise (and if in doubt) use past (“said”)
- Never use
- Opinion verbs: guessed, thought
- Phrasal verbs: came up with, worked out, found out
- Slang verbs: reckoned, figured