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#1 Essay referencing: Harvard or Oxford?

Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 6:16 pm
by Stofsk
After finishing an essay I thought about this and thought I might ask the board what style they used. Harvard or Oxford? My university has no preference for either one, they just want me to be consistent.

I used to use Oxford system for some reason, and I had a love for footnotes (but not endnotes, hate 'em). But lately I've taken to use the Harvard system. It's just simpler and less cumbersome. Every reference you make in your text gets a quick and easy reference in parenthesis and that's the end of it. And footnotes also lost their charm.

I imagine this thread probably won't engender a massive discussion on each style's merits :P, but I was curious enough to ask.

#2

Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 7:09 pm
by frigidmagi
I write in the Harvard sytle myself, it is what most of my professors prefer by a great margin and I tend to poke them a bit as it is. (Example, in world politics, I sucessfully distoryed the idea that HAMAS was moderating, while she took it gracefully and with good cheer, I felt it best not to rub salt.)

When reading however, I've found I love scoping out footnotes.

#3

Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 7:25 pm
by Lindar
MLA? APA?? CHICAGO?

I don't have a style honestly.... i just follow the directions..

shake and bake essays...

#4

Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 8:27 pm
by Stofsk
It appears the gentle world of essay referencing is larger than I thought. MLA, APA? Chicago? I know none of those.

With my university there's two choices they offer: Oxford or Harvard. I don't see why there has to be a plethora of different styles anyway, since the distinction between these two is: foot/end notes or not.

#5

Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 8:38 pm
by frigidmagi
MLA is pretty close to Havard Stofsk, it uses parenthesis not footnotes. I consider them to be one and the same honestly. APA I'm not filimar with and Chiago I've never heard of.

#6

Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 8:48 pm
by Scottish Ninja
MLA is the standard I'm required to use at my school; I believe it's fairly common in the US.

The MLA.

Chicago I've also never heard of, which is rather strange considering that's where I live.

APA is the other major group I know of, though I think it's not as common.

#7

Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 9:24 pm
by Lindar
I only had to use Chicago once, and it was for a theatre trained teacher who was ANCIENT but i <3'd him because he taught mysteries fo the unexplained.

#8

Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 12:23 am
by Hotfoot
I've had to use so many damn standards it's just silly. I gave up on standard systems in high school. I just ask each teacher what they want to see and do it that way.

#9

Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 1:14 am
by Stofsk
It's nice to know my University has two standard styles, and they don't care which you use.

#10

Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 1:18 am
by B4UTRUST
Erm... I don't think I've ever used a standard nor been required to use one. I write and generally most of my teachers love it. They did in high school at any rate. Of course there was the fact that I could generally spell my words correctly and on occassion was able to use proper grammer which set me levels above the rest of my classmates. Most of them had difficulty digesting Macbeth...

#11

Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 1:18 am
by Shark Bait
I use APA for when I'm writing psych papers, and MLA for when i'm writing bio papers.

#12

Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 1:28 am
by Cynical Cat
Chicago is widely used in the Arts department at UBC.