Honors Writing Seminar

In an essay, citations come in 2 parts: bibliography + in-text. In a presentation, you have 3 parts: bibliography + in-text + oral.

Same Old Citation Practices

Your presentation should list all your sources at the end -- and don't just fly past them at your conclusion, either.

However, just like your papers, you need to show your work: where did those sources contribute to your presentation? I.e. you still need your in-text and parenthetical citations.

Flexibility

Presentations are supposed to be more visual, with you-the-speaker as the focal point for the information. None of the style guides have strict rules about slidedecks the way they do documents -- there's no double-space, 1" margin, Times New Roman guidelines.

Standard rule of thumb is to not use complete sentences on your slides. So where does a citation that normally comes at the end of a sentence belong? Wherever it makes sense. Could come at the end of a bulleted list, could be tucked in the corner... so long as it's legible and clearly a citation, you'll be okay.

Did You Create That Image, or Did You Borrow It?

Anything not original to you needs a citation except for commonly known facts. This is true of images, as well, which are basically visual direct quotes!

Is it a decorative image?

If a picture is just kind of... flavor to help jazz up your slide, you're probably fine giving an informal attribution, like "Image by user on Flickr." If you're using some Creative Commons-licensed images, just stick with the "CC BY whoever" attribution provided. This can be added in a fine print (but readable; it shouldn't be invisible to your audience) text box below the image, or a note at the bottom of the slide. They would not, generally, need to be listed in a bibliography.

Is it a meaningful, informative image?

If an image (be it historic photo or data chart) came from one of your information sources, keep that citation on there! If it's a standalone source of information and analysis on its own, write a citation for it -- list it in your bibliography and include a parenthetical citation note on the slide(s) where it appears!

Giving oral citations are just like narrative citations in an essay:

• The first time you cite someone, introduce them.
  • No: "Doe says..."
  • No: "According to Jane Doe"
  • Yes: "According to Harvard psychologist, Jane Doe, who led a study on..."
• Is the source important? Consider namedropping them. Is the source a random news article, helpful but not groundbreaking? Leave it parenthetical -- seen but not mentioned.

And just like in an essay, sometimes narrative citations aren't enough -- go ahead and include that parenthetical on the slide just to be real clear. This is even more important if the person you're citing isn't the official author of the source in your bibliography.