However, the minutiae of the various citation systems can be annoying. They're all different, and each teacher has his/her personal preference as to which one to use. Does it really matter whether the period following "Id." is italicized? (For that matter, does it really make a difference as to whether it's "Id." or "Ibid."?) Will I be better able to find the source? I never was a big fan of rigid forms of citation, but I became especially opposed when I started law school. My first experience in law school was remarkably negative. (It was not at SCU, where I'm quite happy now.)
I had quite possibly the worst legal writing and research teacher in existence. [2] He was a grumpy adjunct who was probably 80 years old and he hated teaching. He thought the class was a waste of time, and as a result, he didn't put much effort into it. I learned next to nothing in his class. [3] He worshiped the Bluebook. [4] He would be picky about the stupidest details, and we would get marked down for little things. Forgetting to italicize was treated as seriously as misstating a proposition of law. Additionally, the class was graded on a strict curve, and the grades began with the first assignment when nobody had ever seen the Bluebook before. If someone didn't immediately grasp the nuances of this 416 page behemoth, there went the grade for the whole semester.
(I should add at this juncture that my legal writing and research teacher at SCU is excellent. He's among the top three professors I've had in my entire college education.) [5]
I'm in the process of applying to become an adjunct at one or more of the local community colleges. I hope to teach either English or Philosophy, but I could see myself teaching Political Science as well. In any of these subjects, I plan to assign term papers. I'm not going to be uptight about citation. Here's a proposed syllabus section. What do you think?
Academic Integrity:------
It is a serious violation of academic integrity to pass the work of others off as your own. This is called plagiarism. If you are caught plagiarizing, you will fail the course and be reported to the dean.
It is, however, appropriate and expected that you build upon the work of others. You must cite all sources that you use. The purpose of citation is to ensure that prior thinkers and researchers are given credit for their work. There are many citation formats in existence, and they all promote the same principles. The purpose of a unified citation system is to make it easier for the reader to locate and verify your sources.
For the purposes of this class, you must cite your sources in accordance with a generally accepted citation format. Examples include, but are not limited to:
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
Chicago Manual of Style
Associated Press Stylebook
The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation
ALWD Citation Manual
You will receive full credit for citations as long as I can locate and verify your sources.
Footnotes:
[1] If this were a law review article, there would be a footnote after nearly every sentence, either citing to something, or making a parenthetical comment such as this one. Since this is a blog post, I'll spare you the extensive footnotes. (Five isn't extensive, is it?)
[2] I have not done an extensive study of the quality of legal writing and research teachers, but I have personally had three, and I know friends who, altogether, have had upwards to ten different teachers. This particular teacher in question is the worst. (I'm aware that the plural of anecdote is not data, but I'm also aware that hyperbole is an accepted literary device.)
[3] I should add at this point that I did learn how to do legal research using actual real, live books. This is the only thing I learned in the class, and it's something for which I'm grateful.
[4] The Bluebook is the short name for The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation. It's the most common citation manual for the legal profession.
[5] The other two are professors I took classes from as an undergraduate: one in philosophy (who caused me to switch to studying philosophy), and one in economics.
2 comments:
I like your ideas on citation for your class. In preparing things for publication in the past year, I've had to change the citation styles on the same paper at least four times. It's so annoying! And you can tell you're a graduate student when five footnotes doesn't seem extensive :)
A funny thing happened in my appellate advocacy class yesterday. The lecture was a refresher on the Bluebook, in preparation for our brief that's due tomorrow. Part-way through the lecture, my professor (the good legal writing and research prof.) went off on a tangent about his personal theory of citation and how much he can't stand the Bluebook. The tangent sounded remarkably like this blog post. I knew there was a reason I liked him. :-)
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