Nathan Rein

See more in my Dopplr profile. - Nathan Rein

"Bauerlein's has some idiosyncratic methods for his citation counts (according to the PDF linked above, pp. 9ff.). I wonder how reliable his numbers really are." - Nathan Rein

I'll be there from November 17th until November 22nd. See more in my Dopplr profile. - Nathan Rein

"Great piece. I would suggest that the idea of "WebMD Catholicism" is part of a long trend -- going way back before the Internet -- towards "Protestantization" of North American Catholicism. By Protestantization, I mean the idea that tradition and institution count for very little next to the fact that anyone can pick up and read the "authoritative" primary texts on his or her own.  To me, this is a very Protestant ("sola scriptura") idea. (I realize these texts aren't scriptural, but my impression is that the sola scriptura idea has gradually bled over into other texts too. For many people, if something is written down, it automatically assumes a kind of fixed and static authority that seems to trump what any mere person might say, regardless of the fact that those texts originate with persons, traditions, and institutions themselves.)" - Nathan Rein

"Re: roppenheimer's last comment: "[S]orry, two spaces is right regardless of what anyone else says." Quod erat demonstrandum, I suppose. And to think this was a discussion that began with insisting on taking the trouble to cite things properly!" - Nathan Rein

"I don't think the article is arguing that people shouldn't cite. Rather, I think the point is that we (professors) shouldn't be overly concerned with formatting. As I understand it, the point is that students should recognize the difference between the technicalities of citation style (boldface or italics? first names or initials? etc.) and the principles and concepts that underlie responsible citation. Teaching students that they should focus on the format -- i.e., the "recipe," so to speak -- of a citation rather than the real meaning of the citation is a poor allocation of pedagogical energy. At least, that's my reading of the piece." - Nathan Rein

"Indeed ... Many people learned back in typing class that you need two spaces following the end of a sentence, but that doesn't necessarily make it right. The MLA style guide, the Chicago style guide, and the APA style guide all prescribe one space following a period in typeset-quality text (i.e., anything your computer produces). Want links? Here they are: http://www.chicagomanualofstyl... http://www.mla.org/style_faq3 http://blog.apastyle.org/apast... And if you're not too snobby for Wikipedia and blogs, these pages have some useful background and links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D... http://grammar.quickanddirtyti..." - Nathan Rein

"Hey, you're right -- if there's one thing I want in a future leader, it's a grasp of MLA citation style!" - Nathan Rein

"It's pretty astonishing, given that most of the Chronicle's readers are probably academics of one stripe or another, how many people responding in these comments have completely misunderstood the article. It's not saying we shouldn't teach our students to cite things properly. Rather, it's saying that citation FORMAT needn't be as high a priority as the author thinks it usually is (whether he's right or not is naother question). The point is, we should expend more pedagogical energy on getting students to read attentively and thoughtfully than on getting them to follow some precise formatting checklist. What's ironic is that the people taking issue with the article and defending precise attention to citation format seem to be making exactly the mistake the author decries in student writing, i.e., obsessively focusing on mechanics but failing to comprehend the real point of the argument." - Nathan Rein