A beginner’s guide
A common question by teachers at university is “How do you know that?” When you build a house, you use good material to support the walls and roof. It’s the same with academic work – you need to do research and to have good sources of information. The video below is a simple introduction to this. If you prefer to read, the text that follows tells of a similar situation.
To see what an essay showing sources looks like, look at the essay writing handout on the Focus: Writing for Class page.
If you like to read, below is a very similar story to the one in the video.
Conversation one
You are a ten-year-old girl. You come home from school and say to your parents, “I want a smart phone.”
Your mother smiles and asks, “Why do you want a smart phone?”
You answer, “Because everyone has one.”
Your parents both laugh. Your mother asks, “Who is everyone? Your friends? The teachers?”
Your father asks, “Yes, and how do you know?”
You get angry and go to your room. You don’t get a smart phone.
Conversation two
You are a ten-year-old girl. You come home from school and say to your parents, “I want a smart phone.”
Your mother smiles and asks, “Why do you want a smart phone?”
You answer, “Because everyone has one.”
Your parents both laugh. Your mother asks, “Who is everyone? Your friends? The teachers?”
Your father asks, “Yes, and how do you know?”
You are angry, but you say, “The teacher asked the class today and lots of students put up their hands to say ‘yes’ – and Rika put up her hand too!” Rika is your best friend.
Your parents look at each other for a minute, then your mother says, “I am sorry, but we think you are too young to have a mobile phone.”
You are angry and go to your room, but you hear your mother say to your father, “I think I will ask Rika’s mother if she has a mobile phone.”
Conversation three
You are a ten-year-old girl. You come home from school and say to your parents, “Today, a police officer came to school and told us to be careful on the way home. She said, “Don’t talk to strangers.” It made me scared. Some of my friends have mobile phones to call their parents if they are in trouble. I want a mobile phone too.”
Your parents do not laugh. They look very serious and worried. Your father says, “I can understand why you feel scared. I will call the school and find out more about what the police officer said.” Your father picks up the phone.
Your mother says, “Don’t worry about it now. Let’s have a snack!” She takes you to the kitchen. You hear your father say on the phone, “Yes, I would like to ask about the visit by the police officer today. My daughter was very worried and…”
Conversation four
You are a ten-year-old girl. You come home from school and say to your parents, “Remember the news story we saw together on NHK about the child who had an accident on the way home from school in Tokyo last week? Well, there was an article in the Asahi Shinbun today about the danger of elementary school students coming home from school on their own. The article said the number of dangerous incidents has increased 240% in the last year. Today, a police officer called Mr. Tanaka came to school. He said that the number of dangerous incidents in this city is actually 520% more than last year. Our teacher then told us that if we are worried, the school wants us to talk to our parents about getting mobile phones. Here is a copy of the article from the newspaper, here is the information from the policeman and here is the letter from the school.” You give your parents three pieces of paper. The information from the police officer says, City Police Office: Official Warning and the letter from the school says, An Important Note to Parents. Read This Now.
Your parents look at each other. They look very serious and worried. After a minute, your mother says, “That is very serious. Thank you for telling us. Your mother and father will have to talk about this, but we understand why you are worried.”
One week later, you get a new mobile phone.
What is the difference between the four conversations?
Conversation one: “Everybody has one.” (in Japanese, “Datte, minna ga motteiru mon!”) is a phrase many children have said. But who is everyone/minna? All the child’s friends? Everyone in the class? Everyone in the school? And how does the child know? The parents do not think it is serious and just laugh.
Conversation two: How does the child know? The child says the teacher asked the class and that her best friend, Rika, has a mobile phone. The parents laugh, but the mother also decides to check with Rika’s mother. The parents are not sure if they can trust the information the child tells them, but are more serious about it than in conversation one.
Conversation three: Now the child comes home with information from someone people usually trust: the police. Also, the child says she is scared and explains why. The parents are much more serious. The father calls the school for more information and the mother offers the child a snack to stop her thinking about it. Maybe the child gets a mobile phone.
Conversation four: The child comes home and talks about information from four different sources: NHK news, the Asahi Shinbun, the City Police Office and the school. She watched the NHK news with her parents (which probably means the parents trust the NHK news) and she gives a copy of the information to her parents. The information, with titles like City Police Office: Official Warning and An Important Note to Parents. Read This Now look real and the parents become very serious. The child gets a new mobile phone very quickly.
When the child uses words like “everyone” but “everyone” does not mean everyone, and when there is no supporting information, the parents just laugh. They are not serious. But when the child talks about and brings home information from different sources (NHK news, the Asahi Shinbun, the City Police Office and the school), the parents trust and respect all four sources, and the child gives the parents copies of the information so they can check, the parents become very serious.
In high school, you worked hard to improve your English grammar and vocabulary and this is important. Being able to say your opinion is also important. However, that is only the start. When you give a presentation or write an essay at university, usually you will have to show why you think so and where your ideas come from. To do this, you have to use a more academic style.
KSU Faculty of Foreign Studies
Department of English