Educators are often left perplexed by the number of times they have to go over referencing and citations in class before students get it right.

Teachers and professors, who’ve likely submitted many research papers during their career, understand the importance of referencing accurately; however, school students look at it as a confusing, unnecessary task that takes up too much time and effort.

Many younger students never grasp the concept of citations and struggle to do them correctly, despite having style guides to help them.

Let’s look at how why so many students struggle with citations:

Students Don’t Understand Their Significance

A survey carried out in 2012 found that students enrolled in elite public schools completed less than five research-based essays in a year. Another survey of college professors found that students struggled to write papers because less than half of them had received any formal training in writing.

As classes become bigger, teachers aren’t able to hand out heavy assignments like research-intensive papers. Also, in the past few years, there’s been a greater emphasis on adopting multiple-choice tests in English classes instead of essays and written critiques.

To put it simply, students aren’t getting enough writing practice in school; therefore, they struggle to submit quality research papers in college.

Students Don’t Know How To Research

Citations and referencing give authors a chance to prove that their paper is thoroughly researched and credible. But what happens when a student doesn’t know how to research?

When students don’t get research assignments in school, they don’t learn how to research for academic papers.

Sure, there’s plenty of information available on the internet, but it’s not all credible. Students must be taught to search for reliable, academic, peer-reviewed sources from trusted journals.

Once they begin researching correctly, they’ll learn to organize research notes and cite sources while writing their paper, as opposed to doing it at the end.

Too Many Citation Styles

Students write plenty on social media platforms and other digital spaces, but that writing style isn’t acceptable for academic papers. The problem arises when their “internet writing style” seeps into their research papers and impacts their credibility and ability to convey critical information.

Even educational institutions in the USA can’t agree on a single citation style; students are forced to switch between MLA, APA, and Chicago as per a professor or teacher’s requirements.

Each referencing style has distinct rules, making it that much harder for students to remember.

If you’re a school or college student that struggles with citations, submit your academic papers to Panther Academic Editing.

We offer reliable proofreading and academic copy editing services. Our team of APA editors meticulously goes through your reference list and develops accurate APA annotated bibliographies and in-text citations.

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