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This is a tricky area. Hopefully, Podiatry Arena is a useful resource for Teaching and Learning, but things become somewhat problematic when students want to cite a thread here as a reference in a essay or assignment. Referencing an online forum is often an easy option for students when they should be putting in the work to do it properly. On the other hand, opinions expressed here by experts may not be available elsewhere and may be an important resource reference for the student.
Each University and each teacher will have a policy on this and its not up to us to dictate that (we do get emails from students from all over the world asking how to reference Podiatry Arena, which prompted this thread). Some staff will not allow students to use references that are not published, but in todays electronic environment, what is published?
For guidance, we offer the following:
The American Psychological Association (APA) Publishing Guidelines are the standard reference that is most widely used. In their table of contents they have a section on forums:
Quote:
Newsgroups, online forums and discussion groups, and electronic mailing lists
If an author name is not available, use the username for the post.
cleaner416. "Add [<b>[</b> Tags to Selected Text in a Textarea" Online posting. 8 Dec. 2004. Javascript Development. 3 Mar. 2006 <http://forums.devshed.com/javascript-development-115/
add-b-b-tags-to-selected-text-in-a-textarea-209193.html>.
But do not actually say if it a good idea to do it or not.
MLA:
Levy, Michael. “Re: your canon?” Listserv. 19 Apr. 2006. Science Fiction Research
[author.] [“title or subject line.”] [type of post.] [posting date.] [discussion group.]
Association. 26 June 2006 <sfra-l@wiz.cath.vt.edu>.
[date of access] [<discussion group address>.]
APA:
Levy, M. (2006, April 19). Re: your canon? Retrieved June 26, 2006,
[author.] [(posting date).] [title or subject line.] [Retrieved date of access,]
from sfra-l@wiz.cath.vt.edu.
[from address.]
Chicago:
24. Levy, “Re: your canon?”
[fn. #.] [author last name, ”title or subject heading.”]
There are many electronic forums that allow users with a specific interest or affiliation to discuss topics with each other. Some of these are restricted to members of a group, or of a specific course. (Many Yale courses, for instance, provide forum discussions through the Classesv2 server.) Other such discussions are open to any interested party. Although discussions limited to professionals in a field may be more authoritative, in general you should probably treat material from these forums as popular rather than scholarly sources.
Note: Many such forums expect communications to be private. Be sure to check the group’s policies on reproduction of such material. Even if an FAQ or moderator seems to make reproduction permissible, a decent respect for privacy suggests that you secure the poster’s permission before making the material public.
If you use material from an electronic forum, list by author’s name. Follow that with the most specific identifying information you can give about the particular post. Depending on the type of discussion, there may be subject headings or specific message numbers on a given post. You may or may not be able to tell the posting date.
In MLA style, include the name of the sponsoring forum: this means including both the organization or group that hosts the discussion and a word that identifies the kind of posting (Forum, Listserv, etc.). Although this genre is still evolving, indicating that the material is from a listserv or class forum will alert your readers to what is sometimes a more casual or meditative tone in texts of this nature. Since most of these discussions do not supervise postings, do not put the sponsor name in italics. Follow this with the date you accessed the material. Even when membership is restricted to a particular organization, most listervs should probably be treated as popular rather than scholarly sources.
The last item in your listing—the electronic address—brings up one point on which MLA and APA styles differ starkly: in APA, if the posting cannot be retrieved, you cite it in your paper as a personal communication and do not include it in your list of References. Even in MLA style, it’s better to cite the message in the form that’s most easily accessible to your reader: many listservs archive their messages on the web, for instance, even though the original postings are delivered by email. Try to include the archive address.
Note: As discussed in How To Quote, it’s often useful to identify your source in the body of your paper (and not just in your citation or footnote); this identification is especially important when you use listservs. If you give a sense of what kind of Websource you’re using, the reader will be better able to understand the context of your evidence.
Note, also: You may notice that listing Internet sources often takes more time and care than listing print sources. Since the authorship and location of Web sources are harder to establish, readers need even more information in order to assess sources and to retrieve them for further study.
Personally, I would like to see it discouraged, but not banned.
Students are advised to check with their teachers.
Re: Using Podiatry Arena as a resource for student assignments and essays
Netizens
I teach on line and do enourage my students every year to subscribe to Podiatry Arena . Many discuss the contributions to the themes from Arena in their student FORUM. Often the students will use this to further their enquiry but to date I have had no one use a citation in assignments.
Occassionally I do set class assignments to critique 'professional websites' (including Podiatry Arena) as the basis for meaningful information for CPD and clinical reference. Without exception PA comes out tops every time as a reliable, interesting and useful adjunt to support clinical practice.
Thats good enough for me and a real asset when teaching in a cyber classroom.
PA has set the bench mark. Well done and keep up the good work.
toeslayer
Last edited by toeslayer : 3rd November 2007 at 05:05 PM.
Reason: edit sentence
Re: Using Podiatry Arena as a reference for student assignments, papers and essays
Thanks for the feedback.
Students will be students and if they can find an easy way of doing it, then they will.
We have had threads here (some got deleted) where students have gone as far as post assignment questions. One even demanded a prompt response! (if anyone is unhappy with the service here they should ask for a refund!). Are they being lazy or ingenious? Sometime the community here responds with help, other times it tells them to stop being lazy and go and find the library.
Its just using what really are personal comments from here in an academic essay (assignment or paper) and if its permitted, how much and how to do it.
Re: Using Podiatry Arena as a reference for student assignments, papers and essays
netizens
An aspect of PA I feel is very valuable to all particularly as it has a social dimension. Not only do you get topical discussion but it is couched within an ambience of 'podiatrists' and an international forum too. I am not aware of multi lingual discussions elsewhere.
We are certainly not always aware of what goes on in the background (all credit to Admin I&II) but what we read is more convivial and thought provoking and far less cynical than other websites. This does not deter controversial issues from being debated in an open and matter of fact way. Nor is there psuedo politeness or intimidation to speak to the 'Gurus', because contributors are free to express their points of view within the parameters of netiquette.
The topics are wide and hold contmeporary interest, rarely does the discussion last longer than fortnight which leaves new and fresh material to be presented. The archives are a valuable resource and demostrate (to me anyway) the wrtten culture of modern podiatry.
I was delighted to read that PA is seen as a worthwile activity which contributes to CPD.
toeslayer
Last edited by toeslayer : 4th November 2007 at 12:44 AM.
Reason: omitted a word
Sarah Tate a 78 years old lady presents with a sloughy shallow wound on her lateral malleolus.
On examination the wound measures 3cm x6cm, the surrounding skin is macerated with some erythemia present. It is exudating copious amounts of serous fluid.
She sustained the wound eight weeks ago when she injured her leg on a supermarket trolley.
She has been treating the wound herself applying dry gauze and has consulted you as it has become more painful. She would prefer to continue managing the wound herself.
According to your knowledge of tissue viability and wound healing what you think the diagnosis and treatment plan for this lady will be ? please remember you have to use sustained compression bandaging technique.
Using Podiatry Arena as a reference for student assignments, papers and essays
Re: Using Podiatry Arena as a resource for student assignments and essays
Linear Mode
