“It’s the law of quotation marks. Two by two they stand guard: at the frontier or before the door, assigned to the threshold in any case, and these places are always dramatic. The apparatus lends itself to theatricalization, and also to the hallucination of the stage and its machinery: two pairs of pegs hold in suspension a sort of drape, a veil or a curtain. Not closed, just slightly open.” (Derrida, 1989: 31)
Reference
Derrida, J. (1989). Of spirit: Heidegger and the question. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Why cite; why refer?
There are two elements of referencing: citation, in the text; and the bibliography, at the end of the text; or, if using the documentary-note style, three elements: citation, footnote (endnote) and bibliography.
When one borrows from another writer or creator, directly in first-party or third-party quotation or indirectly through paraphrase or summary, one needs to make explicit where that quotation or paraphrase came from and where it can be found in the body of the other's text. This is to acknowledge one dimension of the inter-subjectivity of the act of writing. [Implicit argument: the act of writing is inter-subjective through and through, even if, or especially if, that writing seeks to articulate the 'self']
From the perspective of the reader of a text, the central value of referencing is to provide sufficient information to enable the reader, first, to identify the entity in question, for example, whether it is a book, a book chapter, a journal article, a conference paper, a DVD, and so on; and second, to enable the reader to find that entity in a library catalogue, an online database or on the internet.
From the perspective of the writer of the text, the central values of referencing are to demonstrate the breadth of one's reading and research, the sources of one's inspiration, ideas and concepts, the authorities one deems valuable in support of a theory or an argument, to establish the basis from which one's creativity and ingenuity emerges, and to establish one's commitment to a particular domain of cultural resources, such as, for example, the humanities.
To cite is to acknowledge that research and learning are communal activities, and to establish not only that one is indebted to others but to state clearly which specific others and the form that indebtedness takes. An additional reason is to avoid accusations of plagiarism, of having taken someone else's work without acknowledging it and thereby seeming to suggest that it is one's own work.
From the perspective of scholarship or academic practice, the central value of referencing is to provide a basis from which further research can begin, to provide the 'giants' shoulders' upon which the researcher may stand. Referencing provides access to those considered to be within a particular scholarly community, a canon of literature.
Citation in the text may take the form of a number, e.g. in square brackets or in superscript, or a parenthetical author-date, e.g. (Ricoeur, 2004).
There are many referencing systems. The question of which referencing system to use is most often settled by the discipline in which one is working or by the person, organisation or publication to whom one is submitting the text. In creating a bibliographic reference, there are three components: the bibliographic elements (e.g. author, title, date of publication); the sequence in which the elements are arranged; and the punctuation between the elements in the sequence.
Links are presented below on the Harvard style, the Chicago style and the documentary-note style.
Harvard Style
There is no single definitive version of the Harvard referencing system. The Harvard system is also known as the author-date system and parenthetical referencing. It has no formal relationship to Harvard University.
Audiovisual Citation
BUFVC Guidelines for referencing moving image and sound
Chicago Style
The Chicago Manual of Style presents two basic documentation systems:
(1) notes and bibliography; and
(2) author-date.
Choosing between them depends on subject matter and the nature of sources cited. Each system is favoured by different groups of scholars. The notes and bibliography style is preferred by many in the humanities.
Chicago Style Citation Quick Guide
The Documentary-Note Style
The documentary-note style consists of two core elements and a possible third.
Citations are placed in the body of the text, using a superscript (raised) number, generally at the end of a sentence;
Footnotes are listed at the bottom (foot) of each page, for all citations on that page. These are known as endnotes if they appear at the end of a chapter, section or other division, and are generally used for longer texts, for multi-author texts and for texts intended to be read as separate parts; and
A bibliography may also be added. If a bibliography is required, it should be provided at the end of the paper giving the details of each source referred to and possibly other materials consulted in preparing the paper.