On Referencing And Changing It
Posted 15th August 2018
Category: Chit-Chat Genres: N/A
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I’m getting either studious or pedantic about referencing. I really can’t say which it is, perhaps it’s both. As I find myself wanting to write more academic, or at least more studious, posts – that word again because who am I kidding on the academic front – there’s been a parallel increase in desire to use a referencing system, and, more to the point, to do it properly. In the past I’ve used both in-text links and end-of-text references, but the pedantic part of me is looking at the benefits of standardising the whole thing except perhaps in cases when it would look silly (I can’t see myself always referencing a regular blog post academically for example, and in-text links are the standard for websites).
I’m very aware right now that I’ve been spending too much time with techy people who use newfangled vocabulary.
This idea of standardisation has occurred mainly due to my own folly; the first several times I used end-of-text referencing I did it in a different way each time, enough that when I’ve recently looked to use my own posts as a template there was no template. I’ve tried various university systems for referencing and done a lot of research; sometimes there are no options for the sort of reference you need to provide. It was bad enough when I was taking university classes and went to cite a quotation that was a quotation itself.
So I want to standardise and the easiest way to do it on this blog looks to be a sort of amalgamation of various styles with my own ideas thrown in for good measure. Less continual comma…isation…, more brackets, and less reliance on web links that will almost certainly lead to a 404 error a year later.
I’m also getting far too excited about the idea of using footnotes for their intended purpose, and recently went and added a useful contextual note for a recent further thoughts post. Oh dear. (On that in-text link note, my own posts will remain links. Anything else is unthinkable.)
All this may make the blog look pretentious. It may mean that on the surface it looks to newcomers to be the work of a scholar in a book-lined room who knows what she’s about rather than the reality of a girl who over thinks literature and is unfortunately aided by the existence of Google, but that will hopefully just be a minor downside. Footnote: I have found evidence of people quoting my posts in essays and hope they research what I’ve written to check it works!
The question you fully expect: do you or have you used referencing in a non-university (and so forth) manner and how did it go?
September 7, 2018, 9:29 am
Jeanne: It is less cluttered that way, and does mean no confusions due to different editions. I’m starting to note page numbers more often, though I’m not yet sure whether I’ll use them.
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August 15, 2018, 9:40 pm
I made a conscious decision when I started my blog to avoid citing page numbers for my quotations. It took me a while to get used to it, but I like the less cluttered and more informal look.