Citing sources to demonstrate critical analysis

Citing sources is not just a mechanical process of making sure you acknowledge what you’ve read, but also an important mechanism for demonstrating depth of understanding and analysis. When you cite a source, you have the choice of two citation patterns :

  • Information-prominent (source at end in brackets)
  • Author prominent (source is at beginning or within sentence in brackets)

Although there are no hard-and-fast rules about when to use these patterns, there are some contexts where it is logical to use one or the other and this can help you to demonstrate critical analysis in your writing.

Information-prominent citation

When to use?

  • You want to focus on the information, not the source.
  • The information is factually accurate or there is broad agreement.
  • Multiple citations, where more than one writer is saying the same thing

How does it look?

Author's surname/name of organisation + date of publication at end of sentence in brackets, for example

  • ...(Smith 2009)
  • ...(Jones 2013, Young 2017, Smith 2024)
  • ...(Green et al 2012)
  • Inflation has fallen steadily over the last 18 months (RBS, 2016) - factually accurate, source at end

Author-prominent citation

When to use?

  • You want to highlight the  value/importance of a source's individual contribution
  • You want to show individual authors/contributions to our understanding of an issue
  • You want to provide research evidence for a specific perspective

How does it look?

Author's name + (date) + reporting verb + paraphrase or direct quotation, for example

  • Green (2019)  argues that...
  • Taylor (1978) suggested that...

In the paragraph below, the writer uses both citation patterns appropriately in a critical discussion of the use of GDP to measure economic growth.

Economic growth is conventionally measured through Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which estimates the value of goods and services produced within a country, the country’s spending – including government expenditure – and income (ONS, 2016). It was once argued GDP growth acted as a ‘rising tide that lifts all boats’ which would increase people’s wealth regardless of how it was distributed, as the benefits would trickle down through society (Partington, 2019, p.23). However, this traditional growth model has faced significant criticism. Fobre (2015) argues that it excludes the informal economy, while Stiglitz (2016) contends a narrow focus on GDP systematically excludes women’s unpaid work, and increases social, economic, and gender inequalities as a result of growth