A Good Reference
March 2, 2009
Gosh. I was browsing the website for my sociology class and found the following passage regarding referencing sources:
“Empathise with the reader. Ask yourself whether the reader would be able to find the page that you are referring to using the information you have provided.”
That passage gave me a mini revelation. Ever since the concept was thrown at us, back some time in year 7, I have regarded the compulsory referencing of sources as something we have to do in order to prove that we hadn’t cheated. Despite browsing several dozen bibliographies and citation lists myself, I’ve never regarded sourcing as something authors do to help readers. Cheat-guard – yes, to give credit to others – yes, but oddly, I had never even thought of it that way…
There’s something to remember.
