What is your favourite citation style? Does it matter? Discuss.
What is your favourite citation style? Does it matter? Discuss.
I started this blog in 2006 when I was doing my Master of Library Science degree at the University of Western Ontario.
I started this blog in 2006 when I was doing my Master of Library Science degree at the University of Western Ontario.
6,908 posts and 3,356 comments since 2006.
Comments 5
MLA! MLA!
why? because it rules.
I actually hate all citation styles. I understand why we need them, but they're just a royal pain in ass.
Good question.
I favour MLA as well, but that's mostly because I have experience with it. I actually don't enjoy any of the styles which use parentheses in the text. It's too distracting. Give me a footnote or an end note any day. (I prefer to just skip them altogether when I'm reading).
I can concede that if you're using mostly articles and you have several articles by more than one person, then APA is easier to distinguish which article you're referring to. But I hate that it uses year instead of page number. What if you're referencing a book with lots of chapters? Does someone have to read through the whole book to find the quote? Or do I just not understand the APA crib sheet that I'm using?
As far as the bibliography/works cited format, I find very little difference between APA and MLA. I've never used anything else.
What will you do with this information? I smell a revolution brewing…
MLA, I like the brackets and I don't have to fiddle with footnotes, I hate fiddling with footnotes, now ask me how much I hate Bibilographies/Works Cited, 'cause it's a lot, a period here, a comma there..yeesh. However, as librarians we must respect citations…right? I guess in the same way we respect copyright…at library school, ahem.
From the already posted remarks it is so obvious that most library students come into the MLIS program with a humanities degree. For me it is APA all the way. APA just makes more sense when you are dealing with research articles. In these instances, it is more important to know when the study was conducted then what page the citation comes form. Barb, you have to put the page number in APA when you are using a direct quote, otherwise you just put the author and year when you are simply paraphrasing. For anyone else needing help with APA style come find me, I am the Queen of APA.
And the winner is Kath!
I'm not a fan of citation styles either and wonder if it really matters – as long as the core information is there so that a reader can find the work being cited for themself if needed. (Most profs' openness to whichever style you personally prefer would indicate this as well.)
As would the fact that I have (luckily) never been really called for the hybrid citation style that I use here at FIMS which is a half-remembered, half-assed version of what I did in undergrad many decades ago. Is it MLA? APA? Chicago? Columbia? I honestly have no idea. Look at one of the papers I've uploaded and see if you can tell me!
(Do profs read the comments on this blog? I hope not!)