Refrencing in an essay

joejoem

Hey,

When you are writing an essay and you are writing in facts, should you reference by footnote or just write the source afterwards in brackets or in the appendices etc?

Cheers,

Sangre

Footnotes look much more professional. Use especially if you're using a lot of references.

joejoem

Sangre wrote:

Footnotes look much more professional. Use especially if you're using a lot of references.

I had hoped! Need to shave 300 word off the essay too!

Cheers!

scop

Footnotes are generally considered clutter and using the MLA style can easily be avoided. They are certainly not considered more professional, choosing to use them is a purely personal matter and utterly subjective in terms of the readers response.

I would avoid footnotes if I could.

singingstranger

I think if it's fact, footnotes are the way.

Sangre

Hey joejoem, are you doing another law essay (I assumed you were)? If so then footnotes are definitely the way to go. Use them for articles, case citations, legislation references, minor points etc.,
MLA style isn't the best suited for any legal essay (and footnotes are considered better practice).

Chinafoot

Always depends on the subject.

For History it has to be footnotes but for English we're told not to use them.

Best bet is to ask your department or check your student handbook for your course.

hullaballoo

It does depend on the subject. Most English style guides tell you to use footnotes, and personally I prefer them because they allow for greater fluidity of reading. We're told to use the Harvard Referencing style for our business essays, (i.e. using parentheses) but I find that hard to read.

Footnotes are kind of easier too because you can just go "Alt Gr + F".

tintinr35

it really depends on the department
politics dont use them
but history of art are anal about them jus check blackboard or summit!!

Red Alert

Engineering tends not to use them as a rule. References should be listed in a references/bibliography section at the end. Either the harvard or numeric system is ok - harvard's easier if you're doing the references by hand, but numeric's easier to follow and can be done automatically by BibTex like me!

Chakar

If you're doing Politics then referencing should be done at the end of the sentence after the full stop.Referencing in history should always be done by footnotes.But even than it not that simple you have to learn the correct way to reference. like putting a title of a book in Italics for History.I would advise you to check out how to reference with your school, be it Law or Arts.

DublinWriter

We were always told to use the Harvard system in TCD...

http://www.tvu.ac.uk/lrs/guides/harvard.html

Red Alert

The harvard system is only really useful I think when you're sure the other person has read or knows of the paper you're talking about. Otherwise it wastes space...

But if the school/faculty/menagerie says it then we've got to tow the line.