Ibid.

It can be intimidating picking up a book of non-fiction. You’re lucky if you can find one with less than 600 pages. The sheer weight of these tomes is enough to put you off. Non-fiction books are thick. And there‘s a lot of dead wood in there.

The last 200 pages or so are filled with notes of sources. Is citing sources necessary? Why does what the writer say have to be verified? If it’s there on print I’ll take his word for it. He doesn’t need his expert pals to back him up. Because it is all back-scratching. From one book to the next all the usual suspects are roll-called in the source section.

I would hope that anything I write is taken at face value without the hard facts being questioned. Footnotes are like two left feet, they get in the way.

15 thoughts on “Ibid.”

  1. Hi TR, I am sure Boadicea will have something to say about this. I do think a good number of people make claims, in print, that are simply untrue.

    I have just walked in from a book shop in South Ken where I was browsing through a tome called “What Needled Cleopatra?” by Phil Mason. In it he debunks numerous myths, including that of Robert the Bruce and the spider, and many ‘historical facts’ which Americans and others of a patriotic bent are so apt to quote. I suppose the point is that somebody is lying, either Mason or all those people who wrote the history books we all assume to be true. Walter Scott was, according to Mason, the one guilty of attributing the spider story to Bruce.

  2. “If it’s there on print I’ll take his word for it.”

    Therein lies the problem. A lot of people took AGW scammers word for it without checking the facts and look where that has got us!

  3. Hi Sipu, this was written slightly tongue-in-cheek. My main beef is with the volume of references at the back of history books. It begs the question- how much of the book has the author written and how much is copied from other works? It smacks me of laziness to have so much material belonging to someone else.

    “If it’s there on print I’ll take his word for it.”

    Again FEEG, I’m only joking on this. It is up to the individual what they believe is written. A lot of spin can be put on statistics. We have disagreed in the past about the HD clearer picture option. I’m still not buying your argument. Normal picture quality is clear enough. (he says, while banging his fist on the top of the telly 🙂 )

  4. theroyalist :

    Again FEEG, I’m only joking on this. It is up to the individual what they believe is written. A lot of spin can be put on statistics. We have disagreed in the past about the HD clearer picture option. I’m still not buying your argument. Normal picture quality is clear enough. (he says, while banging his fist on the top of the telly :-) )

    In thought you might be, but my point still stands. People of all sorts are allowed to get away with so much garbage that threatens our way of life.

    As regards HD telly, you just wait until all programs are made specifically for HD. Then I think you will be converted 🙂

  5. I read your post and thought that it was probably tongue in cheek!

    However, there are times when it is absolutely essential to put in masses of references – especially when one is trying to turn an accepted ‘truth’ upside down!

    If one is trying to do that it is essential that every step of the argument is referenced, whether it be to someone else’s work that has been quoted, or to a specific document that one has used.

    The reader must be able to check whether the work / document has been quoted accurately. 🙂

  6. Citing sources protects the author of a work as much as it gives due credit to other writers.
    If statistics are wrong, if an interpretation is off the writer can say that (s)he used it in good faith.
    If the source was reputable (s)he can reasonably expect not to have her/his own credibility tarnished other
    than for the most flagrant mistakes that should have been caught.

    What annoys me is in-text citations, however. They’re highly distracting. Footnotes are much cleaner.
    Should one wish to ignore them, they can easily be ignored.

  7. Morning TR

    600 page books are important, particularly in the judiciary, here’s why.

    When a judge or magistrate finds an offender guilty of a particular crime he may decide to ‘throw the book at him.’ Now, obviously a seasoned villain would simply laugh if a 95 page Mills and Boon or one of your DC Batman comics was thrown at him, but a 600 page hard cover would certainly teach him a lesson (particularly if it caught him on the nose!)

  8. Actually, I’d be pretty cross if anyone quoted me without due reference… it’s a simple courtesy to acknowledge someone else’s efforts.

  9. JW, more generalisations here than a don could shake a stick at! Suffice to say, the works you deplore are not for beach-reading. Academia’s bitch, innit?

  10. Quote of the Day

    “If it is on the Internet it must be true.” – Abraham Lincoln

    OZ

  11. My problem with references is that I buy a book which I think I might find interesting – and finish up with an armful because a reference throws up another tome which might also be interesting. Thank goodness for my iPad and e books…

  13. Try getting a PhD without referencing!!!!
    Try getting an academic paper pubished too.

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