Title: Analysis of Bibliographic References by Textbook Authors in Nigerian Polytechnics
Abstract: Introduction Bibliographic have always been an integral aspect of research. The importance of in every research work cannot be over-emphasized. Ajala (2003) posited that as long as completed research needed to be reported in a lucid and concise manner subject to verification and amenable to replication, bibliographic reference would be effective in establishing the place of an authors' production and its value as an authentic text. bibliographic therefore aid research by providing information about materials consulted as well as materials useful for research study. To this end, bibliographic are therefore a useful guide to readers on the sources of information of a research project and can provide an avenue for further research or means for challenging the research or statements arising there from. The words and are interrelated. The capital community college (2004) observed that bibliography is more often used to refer to a list of books which is arranged alphabetically (by author or title) classified by subject and meant for a specific purpose. On the other hand Troyka (2002) opined that references are alphabetical list of books containing the citation used for a study. Thus the combination of the two words; and reference could be known as bibliographic but popularly referred to as references. They are meant to indicate books that were consulted for a study or meant for further reading. The American Psychological Association (2003) observed that the purpose of is to enable the reader to access the material used in any research. The reference list contains all sources form which material is used. It appears at the end of any textbook, paper or article but before any appendix and the biographical material. The reference list provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in the body of the work. Over the years, different forms and styles of documenting have emerged. They include the Kate Turabian style, the Modern Language Association (MLA) style, American Psychological Association (APA) style; the University of Chicago Press (CM) style; the Council of Science (CSE) style, and the Columbia Online style (COS) which is used to document electronic sources. Documentation style is a system for providing information about the source of words, information and ideas quoted, paraphrased or summarized from some source other than the writer (Neyhart and Karper, 2007). The dynamics associated with referencing in academic work is becoming complex. This is because citations are expected to be made on conference proceedings, dissertations, interviews, films or videos, unpublished work, citing multivolume work, corporate authorship, multiple authors and electronic information such as online periodicals, online documents, computer software, article in an internet only newsletter etc. This complexity is evident in works (books and articles) as it is at times difficult to determine what style of referencing is used by an author. Further to this, authors at times dance between two styles of referencing. The noticeable trend today is that lecturers in Nigerian polytechnics write and publish books which express concepts, principles and theories of a particular subject in their field of study. These textbooks are aimed at their students who need the materials to support their learning. As noted by Edewor (2007) textbooks constitute important learning materials, containing accumulated well thought out, human knowledge designed for learning and reference purposes. The production of these textbooks has enhanced local publishing, filling the gap of the dearth of foreign textbooks in Nigeria. These books always carry the reference pages which are a pointer to the veracity of the content of the books. bibliographic though complex, is the crux of any good work and therefore must be separated and subject to professional analysis. …
Publication Year: 2010
Publication Date: 2010-07-01
Language: en
Type: article
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