Advantages of Citation

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Journal 5 The basic assessment of the benefits of citation is simple in my opinion. Giving credit where it is due is clearly the most prominent of the reasons to use proper citation. By using proper citation the reader is able to go back and understand the basis for the writer’s ideas on a topic. The reader is also able to critique the information on which the writer is reliant. There may be flawed thinking or data in the originally cited work which has put the writer in a less than optimal position from which to argue the merits of their paper. Using proper citation allows for a more rapid growth, by society, on a subject. Weeding out lines of thinking which have been disproved or which at a certain time have been run to their conclusion is finished and new perspectives must be put forth. It creates an environment where fresh minds are able to build upon a line of thinking which may be decades on centuries old. Proper citation may allow for a more efficient use of resources within a field as well. Allowing others who work within the same field to study, critique, and understand a work, through its’ citations, limits incidents of duplication and leads to a more efficient environment in terms of time and money. In my opinion, the most important reason for proper citation is to limit what our book refers to as patchwriting. I think that proper citation can protect the writer as much as the person who they may be borrowing ideas from. It’s easy to find yourself thinking about a paper and reading articles or books on the subject numerous times. As you reread subject matter it becomes easier to think that a concept you’ve just begun to grasp, or a thought, is your own when in fact it’s something that’s in the text you’ve been going over. Being diligent in citation allows a writer to take a break from their paper, and come back when they’ve cleared their mind

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