Lecture on References, Citations, and Authoritative Sources

Hi Class,

I$\text{'}$m confident that most students are anxious to get out of school and get into that great first post$-$college high$-$paying job.

When you do get there, please be warned that even if you just want to get along with everyone, you will still be seen as a competitor for the next raise, transfer, and promotion.

For that reason it is important that you realize that those who do TWO IMPORTANT THINGS will advance. $($And if you don't then that mean coworker across the room will soon be the one giving you daily instructions and determining if your next day$-$off request is approved. So don't let that guy get your supervisor job.$)$

Your good coworkers will see your hard work and take that as a challenge to improve their own results and compete with you honorably with a clear conscience. The great coworkers will actually help you to get better, een while still competing with you in a friendly way by increasing their own excellence. And the mean ones $-$ will still act like mean ones.

The two things you need to win in this situation are this:

$1)$ Do Excellent Work and

$2)$ Make sure you are SEEN doing Excellent Work. $($Two very different things.$)$

I want you to realize that even if you are the nicest team player in the office, your work can and will be attacked by critics. Your jealous peers, sometimes your bosses, and even your boss's competitors will often attack your work publicly in meetings. So your research papers, PowerPoints, collaborative projects and even random opinions shared in meetings, need to be informed with credible and respectable source data. If not, nasty folks will try to insult you in meetings by pointing out gaps in logic, and weak research efforts.

The good news is that you can make yourself "bulletproof" by just making small adjustments to the way you do things. You will figure this out on your own $-5$ years down the road $-$ but I am just trying to speed up the process and eliminate some pain for you.

So lets cover three different areas that can either be the source of your first corporate humiliations, or the source of you building a reputation as a powerful and influential business leader.

$1.$ References & Citations

Our society has gotten so casual about many things. People who should write a letter instead send an email, those who should send an email instead send a text, those who should send a text instead send an emoji $-$ or don't send anything at all. None of that stuff gets you promoted. And if you are not moving up$,$ you are probably actually moving towards the door and just don't know it yet.

So $-$ ANYTHING you do that matters to someone should include a credible external source which you cite with $-$ at the very least $-$ a URL. And anything that will be presented to a group, or sent to someone higher than your own rank, should include an APA formatted reference. This positions you as a solid scholarly and credible manager. You use the references in three ways. Quotes from experts, in$-$text citations, and end$-$of$-$paper references.

All credible research and presentations always include quotes from known experts. At least three references in each paper or presentation. But If you are using quotes without citing the source, $($or any other intellectual property that you did not originate$)$ you could be fired for dishonesty or suffer discipline by your academic institution. So avoid that nastiness always using In$-$text Citations with every quote.

Example of an In$-$Text Citation: "The costs of solar energy have decreased by $34\%$ in the past three years." $($Tesla$,2020).$ Links to an external site.

And then full details on that in$-$text citation get listed, in order of use in the research, at the back of your paper in the reference section, or at the bottom of the slide, or in the "Notes Section" of your PowerPoint. $($How to get to the notes view in PowerPoint Links to an external site.$).$

"Reference style" refers to the specific format you put your references in$.$ Because I am speaking to you from a business perspective rather than an academic one, I can tell you that no one in the biz world cares $($Or can even differentiate$)$ whether you use scientific notation, MLA, Chicago, APA, or Cuneiform. so just simplify things for now and use the widely accepted APA unless you are an expert on some other format. Then use that one. APA is the most common. There are two ways to learn APA and use it $-$ You find an online APA style guide $-$ there are millions. Or you use an APA citation generator. $($I do this all the time$).$

APA Definition $-$ In$-$Text Citation:

"When using APA format, follow the author$-$date method of in$-$text citation.

This means that the author's last name and the year of publication for the source

should appear in the text, like, for example, $($Jones$,1998).$ One complete reference

for each source should appear in the reference list at the end of the paper."

APA Definition $-$ End$-$of$-$Paper Reference:

"List by last names and