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Citation Prominence

1) The document discusses three primary ways that research writers can focus citations: information prominent, author prominent, and weak author prominent. 2) In an information prominent focus, the information is prioritized over the author with the citation at the end of the sentence. 3) In an author prominent focus, the author's name is placed at the beginning of the sentence. 4) In a weak author prominent focus, the authors' names are grouped together without appearing in the sentence, just in the citation.

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Maria Psaltou
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124 views1 page

Citation Prominence

1) The document discusses three primary ways that research writers can focus citations: information prominent, author prominent, and weak author prominent. 2) In an information prominent focus, the information is prioritized over the author with the citation at the end of the sentence. 3) In an author prominent focus, the author's name is placed at the beginning of the sentence. 4) In a weak author prominent focus, the authors' names are grouped together without appearing in the sentence, just in the citation.

Uploaded by

Maria Psaltou
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Julia S.

Austin
The Graduate School
University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)

Citation Focus: 3 Ways to Give Emphasis and Enhance Flow


As we have seen, you cite other researchers for a variety of reasons, but chiefly to indicate the
source(s) of your information and to provide readers with a resource list. From a writer’s
perspective, however, citations also offer a strategy for giving emphasis to people or topics and
to enhance narrative flow. Specifically, research writers use three primary ways to focus a
citation: information prominent, author prominent, and weak author prominent. Unless
otherwise indicated, our definitions are adapted from the following reference: Weissberg, R., &
Buker, S. (1990). Writing Up Research. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

In an information prominent focus, the information is given priority over the author(s) with the
citation at the end of the sentence. An example of information prominent focus: Plagiarism is a
mounting concern in higher education and professional circles (Bertram Gallant, 2011; Dee &
Jacob, 2010; McCabe, 2005). Information prominent sentences often provide an introduction
to a research area in a review of the literature and have citations to several works. You could
also use information prominent focus to maintain writing flow and to promote clarity.

In an author prominent focus, the author(s)'s name(s) are placed in the subject position in the
sentence. An example of author prominent focus: Nevertheless, Howard (2008) warns faculty
against assuming that plagiarism is epidemic. The author prominent focus is often used in a
review of the literature after the initial overview sentences or paragraph about a topic. The
name of the author is important for building credibility and can help to clarity the findings
presented in various studies. If a superscript numbering style is being used, the placement of
the citation number will depend on the journal (sometimes is will come at the end of the
sentence, other times it will be placed immediately after the author's name.)

In a weak author prominent focus, the names of the authors are not listed in the sentence, but
are grouped together as "researchers" or "statisticians" or some other appropriate synonym.
An example of weak author prominent: Several researchers have examined the relationship
between plagiarism, academic reading, and writing ability, including summarizing. . . (Howard,
2008; Howard, Serviss, & Rodrigue, 2010; Pennington, 2010). In the weak author prominent
focus, it is quite common to have several studies cited, without the researchers' names
appearing in the body of the sentence, just in the parenthetical or subscript numbered citation.

In sum, the choices that you make about the appropriate focus -- information prominent,
author prominent, and weak author prominent -- will depend on what you are emphasizing at
that point in your text and the flow you are trying to create.

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