Why do you have to be so precise when citing research papers in school?

M

Me1984

New member
I'm good at writing research papers, but it's so annoying when you have to look up how to properly cite a magazine article or an interview, or a book, or anything. And how there's an entire novel for MLA or APA style. Why can't they just make it simple and let you just write the name of the book and author in no format? You have to be so precise on your tabs and putting authors in quotes or italics and spend so much time that way. Sometimes it takes longer to do that than the paper. And why do you have to put in parentheses within the paper the page number you got the source from? Why can't you put that at the end? As long as you write the name of the book and the author, I think that would be enough. I know teachers are worried about students getting free papers on the internet, but still citing in simple form would be enough.
 
In part, I agree with you. I was a college librarian who also taught for-credit Information Literacy classes. Sometimes I would tell my students that I thought there should be one citation format, and that it did not need to be so complicated. The whole point is for someone else to be able to find the exact source you used. This is particularly important in scholarly writing, and there are different citation styles for different disciplines. For example, MLA is used for literature, among other things, and APA is used for education and other subjects.
Having said that, you can surely understand that it is important to put the exact page number from which the citation comes. If you're referring to a 300-page book, how is anyone supposed to be able to find the exact information you are using? Why can't you put that at the end? What if you referred to that book several times, and used material on several pages? This way, the source is right there, at the point you used it.
Yes, it's annoying. Yes, it takes time. But it's the correct way to write a research paper.
 
Because in college, and the world, that's standard protocol.
Don't complain, it'll make sense later. Just learn the stuff well so that you can impress your teachers.
 
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