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To expect a man to
retain everything that he has ever read is like expecting him to carry
about in his body everything that he has ever eaten.
—Schopenhauer,
Parerga and Paralipomena
Superficial the
reading of grown men in some sort must ever be; it is only once in a
lifetime that we can know the passionate reading of youth.
—Walter Bagehot,
Literary Studies
No furniture so
charming as books.
—Sydney Smith
Learning is like a
great house that requires a great charge to keep it in constant repair.
—Samuel Butler,
Prose Observations
Judgment comes from
experience, and great judgment comes from bad experience.
—Robert Packwood
To spend too much time
in studies is sloth.
—Francis Bacon, “Of
Studies,” in Essays
The world itself is a
volume larger than all the libraries in it. Learning is a sacred deposit
from the experience of ages; but it has not put all future experience on
the shelf, or debarred the common herd of mankind from the use of their
hands, tongues, eyes, ears or understandings.
—William Hazlitt, “On
the Conversation of Authors”
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You ask why?
The best motivators are
those instructors who really want to train you to “grow up” and write in
the style that is acceptable for publication within their field. These
folks tend to be creative souls, original thinkers, and concerned
teachers who want you to expand your ability to enter into a dance with
your audience. They want your shoes spit-shined, your hair freshly
combed, and your suit or dress newly pressed. They want you to be able
to defend yourself against readers who might doubt what you say,
challenge your facts, and demand to know by whose authority you say this
or that. These teachers know that in countering these attacks, your
citations help you become a member of the discipline.
You say, "Holy smokes,
I didn’t know that instructors wanted me to use proper citations to
become a better person!" The good ones do, and in passing along this
long and arduous tradition, they are instilling in you, ever so
surreptitiously, a kernel of ethics about communicating your and other
people's ideas to a target audience.
Do you recall the story
of Hansel and Gretel? They left a trail of bread crumbs as they went
through the woods so that they could find their way home. Unfortunately,
some hungry little bird gobbled up all those tasty bits. When you cite
your references, you can help the reader trace your train of thought,
what ideas you considered, what conclusions you came to, and how you
developed original ideas from the research you did. By citing your
research materials you are providing paths that a reader can follow to
answer questions like, “Where did you get that information about jade
turtles?” or “Can you prove what you said about eCommerce architecture?”
Citing your sources
does keep you out of a courtroom, out of trouble with your educational
institution, and out of trouble with your colleagues. But more
important, particularly when you use the Web and publish on the Web, is
that citations act as links (whether they are hot or not), encouraging a
dialogue between you and your readers, allowing them to see where you
started, and to follow the path you took, as windy as it may be, to see
if they end up where you did, or in a new spot.
Source reliability—Trust
yourself
An essay headed for a
traditional journal goes through a number of reviews before being
published. But because publishing on the Web only requires a computer
with Internet access and a place to post the text (like one of those
bulletin boards that many online services offer their users), not all
information may be true, authoritative, or even legitimate. When dealing
with information you find on the Web, be suspicious:
·
Evaluate the reliability of
the source before quoting—what if you end up quoting something that was
the result of plagiarism or downright false and untrue? Uh, oh.
·
Preserve the link back—save a
copy of the link back to the site where you found the work just in case
you have to produce it or prove that the work you cited was really
there.
·
Ask permission to reproduce
if you intend to quote more than a paragraph or two—you'd be surprised
at how many people are willing to give you permission to use their work
as long as you give them proper acknowledgement, and if the work is not
what it seems to be, more than likely the “author” will be hesitant to
give you permission.
Trust your instincts. If you feel the least
bit skeptical about the credibility of a work, leave it out, no matter
how appealing it is, or how much it bolsters your position.
Styleguides
To figure out how to
cite your references correctly, start by choosing the styleguide that
your field, department or professor requires. (Just ask!) Then look at
the summary of the advice, below, or, if you have time and money, go to
the bookstore, and get the full guide. Here are the authorities:
·
MLA—The Modern Language
Association of America Style Manual
·
APA—The American
Psychological Association Style Manual
·
CMS—The Chicago Manual of
Style, sometimes known as the documentary note or humanities style
·
The CBE Manual—The Council
of Biology Editors Style Manual
·
The ACS Style Guide—Similar
to the CBE but written by the American Chemical Society
·
The Bluebook—Guidelines
primarily for legal citations
Academic
journals, publishers, institutions, organizations, and associations may
adapt one or more of certain styleguides and come up with their own
flavors. So if you are used to chocolate, you might have to switch to
strawberry when you switch from one department to another.
Which one do you use if
you haven't been told to use a particular style?
·
If you are a student in the
Humanities, we suggest the MLA.
·
If you are a student in the
social sciences, then you should give the APA a whirl.
·
If you are in social
sciences, humanities, or physical sciences, you could use the CMS, but
their section on citing Web sources in the current edition is rather
slim. In fact, they say that they plan to bolster up the section on
citing electronic references in their next edition and meanwhile, we
suggest that you use the International Organization for Standardization
rules for electronic citations, look at the International Federation of
Library Associations and Institutions suggestions, or refer to Online!,
a guide to online research by Andrew Harnack and Eugene Kleppinger.
·
If you are studying the
physical sciences, then the CBE is a good choice for you. Note that the
CBE doesn't have a thorough section on citing electronic references, but
we'll provide you with suggestions on what to do if you have to use the
CBE.
·
If none of these seem to
apply to you, follow the Columbia Online Style, because it is designed
to work no matter what discipline you are in.
For
more info
Aaron, J. 2000. Little Brown Essential
Handbook for Writers, Third Edition. New York: Addison-Wesley
Educational.
Achtert, W., and J. Gibaldi. 1985. The
MLA Style Manual. New York: The Modern Language Association of
America.
APAStyle.org. 2001. Electronic references.
http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html
Barber, M. 2000. The Longman Guide to
Columbia Online Style. New York: Addison Wesley Longman.
Council of Biology Editors Style Manual
Committee. 1994. Scientific Style and Format: The CBE Manual for
Authors, Editors, and Publishers, Sixth Edition.
Reston, VA: Council of Science Editors.
Harnack, A., and E. Kleppinger. 1997.
Online! New York: St. Martin's Press.
Munger, D., D. Anderson, B. Benjamin, C.
Busiel, and B. Paredes-Holt. 2000. Researching Online, Third
Edition. New York: Longman.
University of Chicago Press Editorial
Staff. 1993. A Manual of Style, 14th Edition.
Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
———. 2001. The Chicago
Manual of Style FAQ (and not so FAQ).
Walker, J., and J. Ruszkiewicz. 2000.
Writing@online.edu. New York: Addison-Wesley Educational.
Thanks to our co-citationologist,
Joyce Daza, for her many contributions to these articles.
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