The last two bog posts have stressed the benefits of making writing expectations and conventions explicit for students through syllabus statements and the use of metateaching strategies. This month’s tip begins a two-part series on how explicit guidance with reading tasks can also benefit student writing.

Errors in documentation are a consistent source of frustration for instructors. Mistakes can range from punctuation errors in reference lists to significant omissions of attribution and documentation that might constitute academic misconduct. Instructors are often perplexed by students’ documentation errors, particularly since students have presumably been writing with sources their entire academic careers. This tip will address some of the potential causes of persistent citation error and offer some recommendations for improving students’ performance with citation.