I am writing my Master’s thesis proposal, in computer science. I would like to cite some observations / predictions / statements made by one of my professors in lecture. There are some lecture slides that back them up, but most of the information was presented only orally. How do I cite this in my proposal?
Specifically, one the things I would like to cite is his prediction that we will see 1000-core processors within a few years (not that far-fetched, there are 64-core processors commercially available already).
“Private communication” seems technically sufficient, but implies a connection that does not exist.
I am a college instructor. I would say there are two ways you can go about it as I had to do this in my Dissertation.
Email the professor and ask him to further elaborate on the concept. Then, in your paper, document it as follows:
We will see 1000-core processors within a few years (John Smith, personal correspondence).
2. Document it as a cite, but just reference it as best you can:
We will see 1000-core processors within a few years (Smith 2008).
And then in the References:
Smith, J. (2008) Lecture Title. Lecture given at the Univ. of XXX on April 30th, 2008.
I recently wrote a CS paper where this came up. We simply marked with a footnote “personal communication” and left it like that. I’ve seen that in other refereed papers too, so I presume it’s the prevailing style.
Otherwise, I presume you’re using LaTeX and BiBTeX for bibliography generation (you mentioned you are writing a CS dissertation). Just use the @misc BiBTeX entry and mention the fact that the information was gleaned from a lecture in the “note” field.
You may want to e-mail your lecturer, first, as he may wish to correct himself.