Hi Everyone!

Haven't been around for AGES as I'm getting work from a freelancing site on all kinds of writing, so I'm actually getting paid real money at last! However a lot of what I earn is (inevitably) on proofing and copy-editing dissertations, and I've bumped into a problem I've never encountered before, so I'd like to know if anyone else has. A certain minor Uni, oop North, in its Health MAs is asking for page numbers for ALL in-text references!!! To my mind, the page numbers should only be there if you're quoting or very specifically paraphrasing a brief section of text. But no, this Uni wants page numbers for general refs, such as: Squirrels can be said to have sharp teeth (Hazel, 2005, p25, Brazil, 2011, p31, Pea, 2003, p78.) Have you ever seen anything so daft? Anyone who has this requirement in their regs, or has ever seen it in an academic texts, please let me know! It's to me the height of stupidity both to the writer and for the reader!

I put semi colons in there after the pge numbers, and they came out as commas! Clearly this is not a Harvard site!:-)

That is crazy. I can't really see any benefit to it. I don't especially like Harvard referencing as is, and that makes it even worse.

Where'd you get a job like that anyway? Sounds good.

"Where'd you get a job like that anyway? Sounds good."

It's a freelance site - there are many of them. People put jobs up for sale and you bid for them. It's like an employment ebay for the un-employable!

It's not an essay mill, though - it's all kinds of writing (web content, journo stuff, product descriptions, and occasionally people needing some proofing etc but it could be on fiction) and other things like web design, design, virtual assistants.

Hi Beajay

I do a lot of doctoral thesis copy editing (though not from a jobs Ebay: sounds like a great idea!), so I come across a lot of university style and presentation guides. Never met this one, though! It rather sounds as if a control freak ninny has got themselves the job of drafting the requirements. For what it's worth, I would go with whatever bloody stupid format is required and advise my client that this is extremely odd;  if criticised they can point to the guidelines and add that 'it did seem an unusual choice, but ...'!

On an even more cynical note, I sometimes wonder if anyone (including and especially the students and the supervisors) ever read the guidelines anyway. Many have to contact their graduate office for a copy ... after three or five years of research and writing. :$

Good luck with it!

P.