What a whirlwind the last couple of weeks have been in the class!
One of the things I was most looking forward to learning was more about citation styles and protocol. No, I do not have a passion for citations, nor is my career choice to be a citer (is that a word?) for hire. My enthusiasm for this particular topic stems from the knowledge that I’m still closer to the beginning of my University journey than the end, and I’m going to need to know this. A couple of decades cracking wise and being profane on the internet hasn’t provided too many opportunities to correctly cite references.
In my previous classes, I’ve managed to get by using Google and the citation generator in Microsoft Word. However, I know that my future studying law is going to require much more reading, much more writing, and hence much more citing. When I get to the more advanced level of writing I’m going to need to be much more familiar with how to properly cite references. As I type this, based on what I’ve learned this week I feel more comfortable about the future…but frustrated about the present.
I’ve learned there are four primary citation standards, and none of them exactly fit the genre my Expert Blog Post is going to be in (SLO 3B). From reading discussion entries of my classmates, I see this frustration is hardly exclusive to me. I do not fault my professor for this, nor do I fault the designers or builders of this class or curriculum. I blame whoever makes the citation rules, the “English Language Overlords” I’ll refer to them as until I learn how the citation convention standardization process actually works. Since some still call it The King’s English, maybe I’ll just blame King Charles III.
What I would love, especially considering the topic I chosen and the medium I’m publishing it to, is for there to exist a standard where we’re able to just have in-line link citations. For instance:
If you want to do (whatever), you’ll need a Raspberry Pi 4.
I see from this photo that Charles III is at least familiar with the existence of computers. Maybe this guy next to him can explain what it is I’m talking about.
The past couple of weeks have also involved me drilling deeper into the language, tone, and lexis of the genre my Expert Blog Entry will be built upon (SLO 3A). Based on both reading further into others’ work in the retro gaming genre, as well as gaining valuable insight from many of my classmates concerning the tone they’re going to use with their Blog Posts and why, I have now decided on how I will balance technical jargon and approachability. Of the sites I have researched this far, I have decided that the tutorials that are offered on arcadepunks.com (See what I just did there, King Charles?) strike a near-perfect balance of being something beginners can dive into while also being useful to those more experience who may just need a refresher or are reading to fill in some blanks. This will be the standard I use for my own blog entry.
So, getting back to the post title…my professor didn’t offer any mentions in her lecture or in the readings about how to cite being frustrated with citations. I’m guessing this is more a question for my therapist than my English professor. Perhaps If you have any suggestions or insight, please leave them in the comments.
