I think I read once that social sciences and education are more
concerned with the timeliness of a document, so the placement of the
date and the use of the date in the in-text citation is important.  When
writing for the humanities, context is more important, so if someone
wanted to look at the context of a particular citation, he or she wants
a page number.

And here is my blasphemy. I couldn't care less about citation style.  I
want to now where statements, research, etc. comes from, but I really
don't care if there is a comma between the author's name and the date or
a period or a flying fig.  We can get so bogged down in the minute
details that we forget to pay attention to the more important stuff.

And lest you think you can't get published if you don't pay attention to
those minute details, I am breathing proof that you can. I publish all
the time in peer reviewed journals. Just got an acceptance yesterday for
an article I co-wrote. And I did the works cited stuff for the article.
I wouldn't stake my life on whether it strictly adheres to MLA style.
Do you put a comma or a period after the author's name. And do you use
the author's full name or just the last name and initials??  Egad. If
the editor is worried about it, she/he can fix my fluffs.

I was adamant that my middle school students cite their references, but
I really didn't care about style. I wanted them to get in the habit of
citing their references and that was a challenge.  Author, title, larger
work, if that was appropriate, date, and page number.

And, of course, I dearly love End Notes.  I just have to remember to
enter the references into the data base. Sigh.


Nancy G. Patterson, Assistant Professor
Literacy Studies Program Coordinator
School of Education
Grand Valley State University
Chair, Assembly on Computers in English
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http://faculty.gvsu.edu/patterna

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