🚀 go-pugleaf

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 1097. Monday, 26 Feb 1990.

Date:         Thu, 22 Feb 90 21:52:42 EST
From:         Norman Zacour <ZACOUR@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject:      Citing theses etc.

Matthew Gilmore asks rhetorically why we "cite anything at all, and
promptly replies, as "verification and proof of our sources." Might
there not be another reason: to acknowledge the work of someone else
upon which our own depends?  As for the pointlessness
of citing a thesis which, by its very nature, is difficult of access,
it is difficult to accept this as an excuse for failure to cite or
even quote at length, say, unique material drawn especially from
out-of-the-way archives, private collections, and the like.  It is
precisely because material may be difficult of access that it should
be drawn to the attention of others.  Much the same can be said,
mutatis mutandis, about theses - if it contributes to one's study
I should think one is obliged to cite it on two grounds, to announce
its usefulness and to acknowledge its assistance.

Norman Zacour
Dept. of History
Univ. of Toronto
zacour@vm.epas.utoronto.ca