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Is three citations per paragraph excessive for undergraduate research paper?



The 2019 Stack Overflow Developer Survey Results Are InHow much background material should a mathematical research paper include?Should my citation graph be acyclic?What guidelines exist for volume of evidence in an undergraduate business assignment?Maximum number of citations per sentence?Modified picture based on three different sources - citations needed?Block-quoting a list: where to put the citation?Is strict adherence to a citation format really necessary in actual research?Uncited general claims followed by cited specific claims – is this an accepted writing style?Citing two authors with the same surname – is it worth noting that they are distinct people?Multiple accounts of plagiarism (?) during literature study: are my standards too high or should I take action?










3















I've had a teacher tell me that I needed to have 3 citations per paragraph in my paper. The paper is to be 20 pages long. Is this level of citation (over 200 individual in-text citations in the paper) too much for undergraduate work? The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.










share|improve this question









New contributor




Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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  • 3





    What field is this? What type of paper? Does she mean 200 unique references or 200 citations? Please add more detail.

    – Azor Ahai
    12 hours ago






  • 7





    Why are you asking us rather than the instructor? You are not even clear on what the instructor is actually requiring. Obviously 3 citations for every single paragraph in a 20 page paper seems high, but without the context, we can't say more than that (and our opinions don't matter in any case).

    – cag51
    11 hours ago











  • by default, do what instructor say, show them example of your work, then adjust

    – aaaaaa
    4 hours ago















3















I've had a teacher tell me that I needed to have 3 citations per paragraph in my paper. The paper is to be 20 pages long. Is this level of citation (over 200 individual in-text citations in the paper) too much for undergraduate work? The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.










share|improve this question









New contributor




Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.















  • 3





    What field is this? What type of paper? Does she mean 200 unique references or 200 citations? Please add more detail.

    – Azor Ahai
    12 hours ago






  • 7





    Why are you asking us rather than the instructor? You are not even clear on what the instructor is actually requiring. Obviously 3 citations for every single paragraph in a 20 page paper seems high, but without the context, we can't say more than that (and our opinions don't matter in any case).

    – cag51
    11 hours ago











  • by default, do what instructor say, show them example of your work, then adjust

    – aaaaaa
    4 hours ago













3












3








3








I've had a teacher tell me that I needed to have 3 citations per paragraph in my paper. The paper is to be 20 pages long. Is this level of citation (over 200 individual in-text citations in the paper) too much for undergraduate work? The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.










share|improve this question









New contributor




Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.












I've had a teacher tell me that I needed to have 3 citations per paragraph in my paper. The paper is to be 20 pages long. Is this level of citation (over 200 individual in-text citations in the paper) too much for undergraduate work? The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.







citations






share|improve this question









New contributor




Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.











share|improve this question









New contributor




Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited 12 hours ago







Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog













New contributor




Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









asked 12 hours ago









Nathan Eggers Techno Tech BlogNathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog

192




192




New contributor




Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.





New contributor





Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.






Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.







  • 3





    What field is this? What type of paper? Does she mean 200 unique references or 200 citations? Please add more detail.

    – Azor Ahai
    12 hours ago






  • 7





    Why are you asking us rather than the instructor? You are not even clear on what the instructor is actually requiring. Obviously 3 citations for every single paragraph in a 20 page paper seems high, but without the context, we can't say more than that (and our opinions don't matter in any case).

    – cag51
    11 hours ago











  • by default, do what instructor say, show them example of your work, then adjust

    – aaaaaa
    4 hours ago












  • 3





    What field is this? What type of paper? Does she mean 200 unique references or 200 citations? Please add more detail.

    – Azor Ahai
    12 hours ago






  • 7





    Why are you asking us rather than the instructor? You are not even clear on what the instructor is actually requiring. Obviously 3 citations for every single paragraph in a 20 page paper seems high, but without the context, we can't say more than that (and our opinions don't matter in any case).

    – cag51
    11 hours ago











  • by default, do what instructor say, show them example of your work, then adjust

    – aaaaaa
    4 hours ago







3




3





What field is this? What type of paper? Does she mean 200 unique references or 200 citations? Please add more detail.

– Azor Ahai
12 hours ago





What field is this? What type of paper? Does she mean 200 unique references or 200 citations? Please add more detail.

– Azor Ahai
12 hours ago




7




7





Why are you asking us rather than the instructor? You are not even clear on what the instructor is actually requiring. Obviously 3 citations for every single paragraph in a 20 page paper seems high, but without the context, we can't say more than that (and our opinions don't matter in any case).

– cag51
11 hours ago





Why are you asking us rather than the instructor? You are not even clear on what the instructor is actually requiring. Obviously 3 citations for every single paragraph in a 20 page paper seems high, but without the context, we can't say more than that (and our opinions don't matter in any case).

– cag51
11 hours ago













by default, do what instructor say, show them example of your work, then adjust

– aaaaaa
4 hours ago





by default, do what instructor say, show them example of your work, then adjust

– aaaaaa
4 hours ago










5 Answers
5






active

oldest

votes


















12














If you are asking whether it is a general "best practice" for a research paper at any level to have three citations per paragraph: no, it is not. In any level research paper, you should cite as often (equivalently, as little) as necessary in order to inform the reader of relevant prior work. If seven papers are relevant to what you are saying in a given sentence, you should cite those seven papers. If in a paragraph you are not saying anything that makes reference to or would be aided by making reference to prior literature, then there should be no citations in the paragraph. You never insert citations to meet numerical requirements.



However, this is an assignment for a course, so the best practice is whatever your instructor told you.




The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.




No, you can ask your instructor which of the above is what she wants. I encourage you to do so.






share|improve this answer

























  • This is true for professional-level work, but undergraduate term papers don't generally include contextualization in the literature because they don't generally make new contributions to the field.

    – Elizabeth Henning
    11 hours ago











  • @ElizabethHenning Even if you don't add anything new, isn't it still good to provide context?

    – JAB
    8 hours ago






  • 1





    @JAB Of course, but advice like "three citations per paragraph" leads me to believe that the OP is a Writing 101 course where the assignment is to do independent reading on a topic and then write it up in an "academic style" with citations back to the source material. This is very different from a survey paper or doing original research and providing citations in a lit review.

    – Elizabeth Henning
    8 hours ago



















3














Trying to get the people here between you and your instructor will annoy her even more. Whether it is excessive or not, it is her requirements that matter.



But I'll just guess that she wants to push you a bit to give you good habits of backing up everything you say in your paper using the available literature. She probably also wants you to do a lot of literature searching.



Treat it as something like a "wind-sprint" ordered by a football coach to give you endurance and prepare you for the big game. As Nike said: Just. Do. It.






share|improve this answer























  • I don't plan on using anything here against anyone. I just want to get a basic feel for what's generally expected. Her style of communication isn't the clearest, and I'm expecting that this is one of her many sins of omission.

    – Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog
    12 hours ago


















3














First of all, the number of citations needed doesn't have anything to do with whether it's undergraduate work or a professional article. My guess from what little you've said is that she gave you a rule of thumb that you're taking too literally.



Citations are used to support a statement you make with an authoritative source, since presumably you aren't an authority. Three citations per paragraph would mean that you are synthesizing a variety of sources and not relying on any one source for long chunks of text, which could border on plagiarism. As long as you are making good use of multiple sources and citing them properly, I doubt that she is going to count the exact number of citations per paragraph.






share|improve this answer


















  • 1





    Hmmm. On the other hand, reasonable as it sounds, you won't be the one with the marking pen.

    – Buffy
    11 hours ago


















2














I am sure this is somewhat field dependent, but 3 citations per paragraph seems like perfectly reasonable advice to give. In terms of general advice, paragraphs have 5 sentences (yes sometimes they have more and sometimes they have less, but we are talking in generalities). The first sentence is a topic sentence and the last is a concluding sentence. These should be (to continue with the sweeping generalities) original ideas that do not require citations. The other 3 sentences are you supporting arguments and should each have a reference (possibly to multiple works).



When you extrapolate this out to a 20 page paper, there might be 40 5-sentence paragraphs. The first paragraph and the last paragraph may not have citations also (as again they are the original ideas). Finally, some works would be cited in multiple places. That might put the total number of unique references in a 20 page paper at around 80-100. I don't think I have ever seen an undergraduate paper get to that number, but I also write citation needed an awful lot.






share|improve this answer






























    1














    Yes and no. This is highly field dependent. Here are two examples:



    1. Mastering Chess and Shogi by Self-Play with a
      General Reinforcement Learning Algorithm. This is an artificial intelligence paper about creating a neural network engine that plays Chess & Shogi better than conventional engines. Notice that it starts by citing a lot of previous articles in the introduction, but by the time it goes into detail about how AlphaZero is created and trained, there are much fewer citations. This is natural: after all, the authors are doing something that hasn't been done before, so one cannot expect there to be references.


    2. Writing Horses into
      American Civil War History. Here we have a history paper about horses during the American Civil War. Now we see citations everywhere. The entire paper is filled with it, almost uniformly. Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to find a paragraph that doesn't have three citations.


    Since expectations vary by field, the answer to your question is also going to depend on your field. But there's an easy shortcut: since your lecturer is requesting 3 citations a paper, you are probably in a field more akin to history and less to artificial intelligence. In that case, three citations per paragraph is not excessive, and you should conform to the field's standards.






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      5 Answers
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      5 Answers
      5






      active

      oldest

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      active

      oldest

      votes






      active

      oldest

      votes









      12














      If you are asking whether it is a general "best practice" for a research paper at any level to have three citations per paragraph: no, it is not. In any level research paper, you should cite as often (equivalently, as little) as necessary in order to inform the reader of relevant prior work. If seven papers are relevant to what you are saying in a given sentence, you should cite those seven papers. If in a paragraph you are not saying anything that makes reference to or would be aided by making reference to prior literature, then there should be no citations in the paragraph. You never insert citations to meet numerical requirements.



      However, this is an assignment for a course, so the best practice is whatever your instructor told you.




      The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.




      No, you can ask your instructor which of the above is what she wants. I encourage you to do so.






      share|improve this answer

























      • This is true for professional-level work, but undergraduate term papers don't generally include contextualization in the literature because they don't generally make new contributions to the field.

        – Elizabeth Henning
        11 hours ago











      • @ElizabethHenning Even if you don't add anything new, isn't it still good to provide context?

        – JAB
        8 hours ago






      • 1





        @JAB Of course, but advice like "three citations per paragraph" leads me to believe that the OP is a Writing 101 course where the assignment is to do independent reading on a topic and then write it up in an "academic style" with citations back to the source material. This is very different from a survey paper or doing original research and providing citations in a lit review.

        – Elizabeth Henning
        8 hours ago
















      12














      If you are asking whether it is a general "best practice" for a research paper at any level to have three citations per paragraph: no, it is not. In any level research paper, you should cite as often (equivalently, as little) as necessary in order to inform the reader of relevant prior work. If seven papers are relevant to what you are saying in a given sentence, you should cite those seven papers. If in a paragraph you are not saying anything that makes reference to or would be aided by making reference to prior literature, then there should be no citations in the paragraph. You never insert citations to meet numerical requirements.



      However, this is an assignment for a course, so the best practice is whatever your instructor told you.




      The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.




      No, you can ask your instructor which of the above is what she wants. I encourage you to do so.






      share|improve this answer

























      • This is true for professional-level work, but undergraduate term papers don't generally include contextualization in the literature because they don't generally make new contributions to the field.

        – Elizabeth Henning
        11 hours ago











      • @ElizabethHenning Even if you don't add anything new, isn't it still good to provide context?

        – JAB
        8 hours ago






      • 1





        @JAB Of course, but advice like "three citations per paragraph" leads me to believe that the OP is a Writing 101 course where the assignment is to do independent reading on a topic and then write it up in an "academic style" with citations back to the source material. This is very different from a survey paper or doing original research and providing citations in a lit review.

        – Elizabeth Henning
        8 hours ago














      12












      12








      12







      If you are asking whether it is a general "best practice" for a research paper at any level to have three citations per paragraph: no, it is not. In any level research paper, you should cite as often (equivalently, as little) as necessary in order to inform the reader of relevant prior work. If seven papers are relevant to what you are saying in a given sentence, you should cite those seven papers. If in a paragraph you are not saying anything that makes reference to or would be aided by making reference to prior literature, then there should be no citations in the paragraph. You never insert citations to meet numerical requirements.



      However, this is an assignment for a course, so the best practice is whatever your instructor told you.




      The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.




      No, you can ask your instructor which of the above is what she wants. I encourage you to do so.






      share|improve this answer















      If you are asking whether it is a general "best practice" for a research paper at any level to have three citations per paragraph: no, it is not. In any level research paper, you should cite as often (equivalently, as little) as necessary in order to inform the reader of relevant prior work. If seven papers are relevant to what you are saying in a given sentence, you should cite those seven papers. If in a paragraph you are not saying anything that makes reference to or would be aided by making reference to prior literature, then there should be no citations in the paragraph. You never insert citations to meet numerical requirements.



      However, this is an assignment for a course, so the best practice is whatever your instructor told you.




      The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.




      No, you can ask your instructor which of the above is what she wants. I encourage you to do so.







      share|improve this answer














      share|improve this answer



      share|improve this answer








      edited 8 hours ago

























      answered 11 hours ago









      Pete L. ClarkPete L. Clark

      117k23316476




      117k23316476












      • This is true for professional-level work, but undergraduate term papers don't generally include contextualization in the literature because they don't generally make new contributions to the field.

        – Elizabeth Henning
        11 hours ago











      • @ElizabethHenning Even if you don't add anything new, isn't it still good to provide context?

        – JAB
        8 hours ago






      • 1





        @JAB Of course, but advice like "three citations per paragraph" leads me to believe that the OP is a Writing 101 course where the assignment is to do independent reading on a topic and then write it up in an "academic style" with citations back to the source material. This is very different from a survey paper or doing original research and providing citations in a lit review.

        – Elizabeth Henning
        8 hours ago


















      • This is true for professional-level work, but undergraduate term papers don't generally include contextualization in the literature because they don't generally make new contributions to the field.

        – Elizabeth Henning
        11 hours ago











      • @ElizabethHenning Even if you don't add anything new, isn't it still good to provide context?

        – JAB
        8 hours ago






      • 1





        @JAB Of course, but advice like "three citations per paragraph" leads me to believe that the OP is a Writing 101 course where the assignment is to do independent reading on a topic and then write it up in an "academic style" with citations back to the source material. This is very different from a survey paper or doing original research and providing citations in a lit review.

        – Elizabeth Henning
        8 hours ago

















      This is true for professional-level work, but undergraduate term papers don't generally include contextualization in the literature because they don't generally make new contributions to the field.

      – Elizabeth Henning
      11 hours ago





      This is true for professional-level work, but undergraduate term papers don't generally include contextualization in the literature because they don't generally make new contributions to the field.

      – Elizabeth Henning
      11 hours ago













      @ElizabethHenning Even if you don't add anything new, isn't it still good to provide context?

      – JAB
      8 hours ago





      @ElizabethHenning Even if you don't add anything new, isn't it still good to provide context?

      – JAB
      8 hours ago




      1




      1





      @JAB Of course, but advice like "three citations per paragraph" leads me to believe that the OP is a Writing 101 course where the assignment is to do independent reading on a topic and then write it up in an "academic style" with citations back to the source material. This is very different from a survey paper or doing original research and providing citations in a lit review.

      – Elizabeth Henning
      8 hours ago






      @JAB Of course, but advice like "three citations per paragraph" leads me to believe that the OP is a Writing 101 course where the assignment is to do independent reading on a topic and then write it up in an "academic style" with citations back to the source material. This is very different from a survey paper or doing original research and providing citations in a lit review.

      – Elizabeth Henning
      8 hours ago












      3














      Trying to get the people here between you and your instructor will annoy her even more. Whether it is excessive or not, it is her requirements that matter.



      But I'll just guess that she wants to push you a bit to give you good habits of backing up everything you say in your paper using the available literature. She probably also wants you to do a lot of literature searching.



      Treat it as something like a "wind-sprint" ordered by a football coach to give you endurance and prepare you for the big game. As Nike said: Just. Do. It.






      share|improve this answer























      • I don't plan on using anything here against anyone. I just want to get a basic feel for what's generally expected. Her style of communication isn't the clearest, and I'm expecting that this is one of her many sins of omission.

        – Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog
        12 hours ago















      3














      Trying to get the people here between you and your instructor will annoy her even more. Whether it is excessive or not, it is her requirements that matter.



      But I'll just guess that she wants to push you a bit to give you good habits of backing up everything you say in your paper using the available literature. She probably also wants you to do a lot of literature searching.



      Treat it as something like a "wind-sprint" ordered by a football coach to give you endurance and prepare you for the big game. As Nike said: Just. Do. It.






      share|improve this answer























      • I don't plan on using anything here against anyone. I just want to get a basic feel for what's generally expected. Her style of communication isn't the clearest, and I'm expecting that this is one of her many sins of omission.

        – Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog
        12 hours ago













      3












      3








      3







      Trying to get the people here between you and your instructor will annoy her even more. Whether it is excessive or not, it is her requirements that matter.



      But I'll just guess that she wants to push you a bit to give you good habits of backing up everything you say in your paper using the available literature. She probably also wants you to do a lot of literature searching.



      Treat it as something like a "wind-sprint" ordered by a football coach to give you endurance and prepare you for the big game. As Nike said: Just. Do. It.






      share|improve this answer













      Trying to get the people here between you and your instructor will annoy her even more. Whether it is excessive or not, it is her requirements that matter.



      But I'll just guess that she wants to push you a bit to give you good habits of backing up everything you say in your paper using the available literature. She probably also wants you to do a lot of literature searching.



      Treat it as something like a "wind-sprint" ordered by a football coach to give you endurance and prepare you for the big game. As Nike said: Just. Do. It.







      share|improve this answer












      share|improve this answer



      share|improve this answer










      answered 12 hours ago









      BuffyBuffy

      56.9k17179274




      56.9k17179274












      • I don't plan on using anything here against anyone. I just want to get a basic feel for what's generally expected. Her style of communication isn't the clearest, and I'm expecting that this is one of her many sins of omission.

        – Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog
        12 hours ago

















      • I don't plan on using anything here against anyone. I just want to get a basic feel for what's generally expected. Her style of communication isn't the clearest, and I'm expecting that this is one of her many sins of omission.

        – Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog
        12 hours ago
















      I don't plan on using anything here against anyone. I just want to get a basic feel for what's generally expected. Her style of communication isn't the clearest, and I'm expecting that this is one of her many sins of omission.

      – Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog
      12 hours ago





      I don't plan on using anything here against anyone. I just want to get a basic feel for what's generally expected. Her style of communication isn't the clearest, and I'm expecting that this is one of her many sins of omission.

      – Nathan Eggers Techno Tech Blog
      12 hours ago











      3














      First of all, the number of citations needed doesn't have anything to do with whether it's undergraduate work or a professional article. My guess from what little you've said is that she gave you a rule of thumb that you're taking too literally.



      Citations are used to support a statement you make with an authoritative source, since presumably you aren't an authority. Three citations per paragraph would mean that you are synthesizing a variety of sources and not relying on any one source for long chunks of text, which could border on plagiarism. As long as you are making good use of multiple sources and citing them properly, I doubt that she is going to count the exact number of citations per paragraph.






      share|improve this answer


















      • 1





        Hmmm. On the other hand, reasonable as it sounds, you won't be the one with the marking pen.

        – Buffy
        11 hours ago















      3














      First of all, the number of citations needed doesn't have anything to do with whether it's undergraduate work or a professional article. My guess from what little you've said is that she gave you a rule of thumb that you're taking too literally.



      Citations are used to support a statement you make with an authoritative source, since presumably you aren't an authority. Three citations per paragraph would mean that you are synthesizing a variety of sources and not relying on any one source for long chunks of text, which could border on plagiarism. As long as you are making good use of multiple sources and citing them properly, I doubt that she is going to count the exact number of citations per paragraph.






      share|improve this answer


















      • 1





        Hmmm. On the other hand, reasonable as it sounds, you won't be the one with the marking pen.

        – Buffy
        11 hours ago













      3












      3








      3







      First of all, the number of citations needed doesn't have anything to do with whether it's undergraduate work or a professional article. My guess from what little you've said is that she gave you a rule of thumb that you're taking too literally.



      Citations are used to support a statement you make with an authoritative source, since presumably you aren't an authority. Three citations per paragraph would mean that you are synthesizing a variety of sources and not relying on any one source for long chunks of text, which could border on plagiarism. As long as you are making good use of multiple sources and citing them properly, I doubt that she is going to count the exact number of citations per paragraph.






      share|improve this answer













      First of all, the number of citations needed doesn't have anything to do with whether it's undergraduate work or a professional article. My guess from what little you've said is that she gave you a rule of thumb that you're taking too literally.



      Citations are used to support a statement you make with an authoritative source, since presumably you aren't an authority. Three citations per paragraph would mean that you are synthesizing a variety of sources and not relying on any one source for long chunks of text, which could border on plagiarism. As long as you are making good use of multiple sources and citing them properly, I doubt that she is going to count the exact number of citations per paragraph.







      share|improve this answer












      share|improve this answer



      share|improve this answer










      answered 11 hours ago









      Elizabeth HenningElizabeth Henning

      6,07311033




      6,07311033







      • 1





        Hmmm. On the other hand, reasonable as it sounds, you won't be the one with the marking pen.

        – Buffy
        11 hours ago












      • 1





        Hmmm. On the other hand, reasonable as it sounds, you won't be the one with the marking pen.

        – Buffy
        11 hours ago







      1




      1





      Hmmm. On the other hand, reasonable as it sounds, you won't be the one with the marking pen.

      – Buffy
      11 hours ago





      Hmmm. On the other hand, reasonable as it sounds, you won't be the one with the marking pen.

      – Buffy
      11 hours ago











      2














      I am sure this is somewhat field dependent, but 3 citations per paragraph seems like perfectly reasonable advice to give. In terms of general advice, paragraphs have 5 sentences (yes sometimes they have more and sometimes they have less, but we are talking in generalities). The first sentence is a topic sentence and the last is a concluding sentence. These should be (to continue with the sweeping generalities) original ideas that do not require citations. The other 3 sentences are you supporting arguments and should each have a reference (possibly to multiple works).



      When you extrapolate this out to a 20 page paper, there might be 40 5-sentence paragraphs. The first paragraph and the last paragraph may not have citations also (as again they are the original ideas). Finally, some works would be cited in multiple places. That might put the total number of unique references in a 20 page paper at around 80-100. I don't think I have ever seen an undergraduate paper get to that number, but I also write citation needed an awful lot.






      share|improve this answer



























        2














        I am sure this is somewhat field dependent, but 3 citations per paragraph seems like perfectly reasonable advice to give. In terms of general advice, paragraphs have 5 sentences (yes sometimes they have more and sometimes they have less, but we are talking in generalities). The first sentence is a topic sentence and the last is a concluding sentence. These should be (to continue with the sweeping generalities) original ideas that do not require citations. The other 3 sentences are you supporting arguments and should each have a reference (possibly to multiple works).



        When you extrapolate this out to a 20 page paper, there might be 40 5-sentence paragraphs. The first paragraph and the last paragraph may not have citations also (as again they are the original ideas). Finally, some works would be cited in multiple places. That might put the total number of unique references in a 20 page paper at around 80-100. I don't think I have ever seen an undergraduate paper get to that number, but I also write citation needed an awful lot.






        share|improve this answer

























          2












          2








          2







          I am sure this is somewhat field dependent, but 3 citations per paragraph seems like perfectly reasonable advice to give. In terms of general advice, paragraphs have 5 sentences (yes sometimes they have more and sometimes they have less, but we are talking in generalities). The first sentence is a topic sentence and the last is a concluding sentence. These should be (to continue with the sweeping generalities) original ideas that do not require citations. The other 3 sentences are you supporting arguments and should each have a reference (possibly to multiple works).



          When you extrapolate this out to a 20 page paper, there might be 40 5-sentence paragraphs. The first paragraph and the last paragraph may not have citations also (as again they are the original ideas). Finally, some works would be cited in multiple places. That might put the total number of unique references in a 20 page paper at around 80-100. I don't think I have ever seen an undergraduate paper get to that number, but I also write citation needed an awful lot.






          share|improve this answer













          I am sure this is somewhat field dependent, but 3 citations per paragraph seems like perfectly reasonable advice to give. In terms of general advice, paragraphs have 5 sentences (yes sometimes they have more and sometimes they have less, but we are talking in generalities). The first sentence is a topic sentence and the last is a concluding sentence. These should be (to continue with the sweeping generalities) original ideas that do not require citations. The other 3 sentences are you supporting arguments and should each have a reference (possibly to multiple works).



          When you extrapolate this out to a 20 page paper, there might be 40 5-sentence paragraphs. The first paragraph and the last paragraph may not have citations also (as again they are the original ideas). Finally, some works would be cited in multiple places. That might put the total number of unique references in a 20 page paper at around 80-100. I don't think I have ever seen an undergraduate paper get to that number, but I also write citation needed an awful lot.







          share|improve this answer












          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer










          answered 9 hours ago









          StrongBadStrongBad

          86.9k24217425




          86.9k24217425





















              1














              Yes and no. This is highly field dependent. Here are two examples:



              1. Mastering Chess and Shogi by Self-Play with a
                General Reinforcement Learning Algorithm. This is an artificial intelligence paper about creating a neural network engine that plays Chess & Shogi better than conventional engines. Notice that it starts by citing a lot of previous articles in the introduction, but by the time it goes into detail about how AlphaZero is created and trained, there are much fewer citations. This is natural: after all, the authors are doing something that hasn't been done before, so one cannot expect there to be references.


              2. Writing Horses into
                American Civil War History. Here we have a history paper about horses during the American Civil War. Now we see citations everywhere. The entire paper is filled with it, almost uniformly. Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to find a paragraph that doesn't have three citations.


              Since expectations vary by field, the answer to your question is also going to depend on your field. But there's an easy shortcut: since your lecturer is requesting 3 citations a paper, you are probably in a field more akin to history and less to artificial intelligence. In that case, three citations per paragraph is not excessive, and you should conform to the field's standards.






              share|improve this answer



























                1














                Yes and no. This is highly field dependent. Here are two examples:



                1. Mastering Chess and Shogi by Self-Play with a
                  General Reinforcement Learning Algorithm. This is an artificial intelligence paper about creating a neural network engine that plays Chess & Shogi better than conventional engines. Notice that it starts by citing a lot of previous articles in the introduction, but by the time it goes into detail about how AlphaZero is created and trained, there are much fewer citations. This is natural: after all, the authors are doing something that hasn't been done before, so one cannot expect there to be references.


                2. Writing Horses into
                  American Civil War History. Here we have a history paper about horses during the American Civil War. Now we see citations everywhere. The entire paper is filled with it, almost uniformly. Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to find a paragraph that doesn't have three citations.


                Since expectations vary by field, the answer to your question is also going to depend on your field. But there's an easy shortcut: since your lecturer is requesting 3 citations a paper, you are probably in a field more akin to history and less to artificial intelligence. In that case, three citations per paragraph is not excessive, and you should conform to the field's standards.






                share|improve this answer

























                  1












                  1








                  1







                  Yes and no. This is highly field dependent. Here are two examples:



                  1. Mastering Chess and Shogi by Self-Play with a
                    General Reinforcement Learning Algorithm. This is an artificial intelligence paper about creating a neural network engine that plays Chess & Shogi better than conventional engines. Notice that it starts by citing a lot of previous articles in the introduction, but by the time it goes into detail about how AlphaZero is created and trained, there are much fewer citations. This is natural: after all, the authors are doing something that hasn't been done before, so one cannot expect there to be references.


                  2. Writing Horses into
                    American Civil War History. Here we have a history paper about horses during the American Civil War. Now we see citations everywhere. The entire paper is filled with it, almost uniformly. Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to find a paragraph that doesn't have three citations.


                  Since expectations vary by field, the answer to your question is also going to depend on your field. But there's an easy shortcut: since your lecturer is requesting 3 citations a paper, you are probably in a field more akin to history and less to artificial intelligence. In that case, three citations per paragraph is not excessive, and you should conform to the field's standards.






                  share|improve this answer













                  Yes and no. This is highly field dependent. Here are two examples:



                  1. Mastering Chess and Shogi by Self-Play with a
                    General Reinforcement Learning Algorithm. This is an artificial intelligence paper about creating a neural network engine that plays Chess & Shogi better than conventional engines. Notice that it starts by citing a lot of previous articles in the introduction, but by the time it goes into detail about how AlphaZero is created and trained, there are much fewer citations. This is natural: after all, the authors are doing something that hasn't been done before, so one cannot expect there to be references.


                  2. Writing Horses into
                    American Civil War History. Here we have a history paper about horses during the American Civil War. Now we see citations everywhere. The entire paper is filled with it, almost uniformly. Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to find a paragraph that doesn't have three citations.


                  Since expectations vary by field, the answer to your question is also going to depend on your field. But there's an easy shortcut: since your lecturer is requesting 3 citations a paper, you are probably in a field more akin to history and less to artificial intelligence. In that case, three citations per paragraph is not excessive, and you should conform to the field's standards.







                  share|improve this answer












                  share|improve this answer



                  share|improve this answer










                  answered 3 hours ago









                  AllureAllure

                  34.4k19103156




                  34.4k19103156




















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