A modern, simplified citation style and student response

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to see if there is a need for and an interest in a modernized and simplified citation style (SCS). Design/methodology/approach – Students in two sections of English 1010 were given a brief training in SCS and asked to use SCS and MLA citation styles, respectively, in their next two assignments. Students were surveyed afterwards about their preferences. Findings – Students preferred using the presented SCS over MLA by a large margin. This was not a surprise. Citation styles are difficult to master. Research limitations/implications – This is a small qualitative study, and the result are not generalizable to a larger population, but the implications suggest that a larger study is warranted. Practical implications – This paper shows that there is a need for a more modern citation style, one that embraces technology and moves forward from the print bibliographic tradition. Originality/value – There are many articles in the literature about citations, but few address modernizing and simplifying citation styles, and none make a proposal for such a style.