Students: "What's a works cited or reference page? Why do they matter?"

Me: "It's the place where we get to see all the intertextual pieces of other texts an author used to build a new text. It is textual DNA."

Students: "You mean referencing & citing is not just a cruel & unusual method for evaluating my writing?"

Me: "It's actual a way for scholars & researchers across the world to share information w each other because they can't meet & discuss their ideas & research regularly."

Students: "But the citation styles are so different. It's annoying."

Me: "I feel your pain. But each style has a rhetorical purpose. For example, why does APA start w the date?"

Students: "Why?"

Me: "The sciences value the date of research."

Students: "So MLA doesn't value the date of research."

Me: "Of course they do, but an article abt localized cancer treatment from 1999 is not going to provide the most current research on cancer treatment, but an article abt Shakespeare from 1900 might still be 1 of the best."

Students: "So it's abt reading citations rhetorically, finding value in the source from the details in the citation?"

Me: "Yes. Citations are a rhetorical pathway the same way the title of the article tells us something abt the accessibility of the information in that article."

Students: "You mean the title actually means something? For real?"

Me: "The title tells us how dense the info is inside the text. For ex: the article title, "Combination gefitinib and methotrexate to treat ectopic pregnancy" tells me I need to back up & find a broader text"

Students: "So the title tells me I'm dumb cause I have no idea what that means."

Me: "Neither do I, but that's knowledge. We're not dumb. We now know we need to back up & start w something broader that we can access & work our way to the denser articles."

Students: "So a works cited or reference page is about entry ways into conversations? I can use it to follow a trail of connected research?"

Me: