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Tim Cornelis
26th June 2015, 21:25
What is the logic behind APA citation rules? When you cite a book, italics the title, when you have a journal, italics the publisher, when you have this or that, no italics. What's the point? There's a 1000 variations of APA citations and no one knows them by heart, and everyone keeps making mistakes. Even the official guide at my university has mistakes. Why not keep it short and simple stupid? Fucking pointless and annoying.
The Intransigent Faction
27th June 2015, 00:54
What is the logic behind APA citation rules? When you cite a book, italics the title, when you have a journal, italics the publisher, when you have this or that, no italics. What's the point? There's a 1000 variations of APA citations and no one knows them by heart, and everyone keeps making mistakes. Even the official guide at my university has mistakes. Why not keep it short and simple stupid? Fucking pointless and annoying.

Agreed! I've had to use APA for most of my essays. I'm all for recognizing the role of ideas and information from other people in my writing, and I suppose a standardized format is a way to ensure that this is done. That said, I've only ever used Chicago style in one course, along with MLA in some others, and I found that they were also convoluted bullshit.
Os Cangaceiros
27th June 2015, 01:44
Chicago is what I'm mostly used to, as an amateur historian. I think that MLA is mostly used in English courses.

I'm not sure about APA, but judging from Wikipedia I guess it's used mostly in medical/scientific publications? I've always been under the opinion that citation systems are needlessly complicated, too.
The Intransigent Faction
27th June 2015, 02:17
Chicago is what I'm mostly used to, as an amateur historian. I think that MLA is mostly used in English courses.

I'm not sure about APA, but judging from Wikipedia I guess it's used mostly in medical/scientific publications? I've always been under the opinion that citation systems are needlessly complicated, too.

As the name would suggest, it's used in psychology papers. I've used it and seen it used in sociology papers as well. I suppose that makes sense given the frequency with which contemporary sociological research makes references to psychological studies (and vice-versa).
Tim Cornelis
27th June 2015, 11:00
APA is standard in social sciences in the Netherlands as far as I can tell.