I Can't Find The Stupid Link

In this section of Kyle Stedman's "Annoying Ways People Use Sources" Stedman discusses the importance of parenthetical citations and their relation to the citation in the Works Cited page of a research essay. A common mistake is to place the title of the article, book, etc. in the parenthetical citation, then place the author's name first in the Works Cited page, which may not alphabetically align with the title. This can be difficult for when trying to locate a citation. It is best to use the author's last name in a parenthetical citation, or if there is only one source or not a specified author, use only the page number or website provided.

I have never been guilty of committing this error, however I have peer reviewed many research essays throughout my time in middle school and high school and I have seen this error made several times. When I started writing yearly research papers in middle school, I would often forget to arrange the order of my citations in alphabetical order, which is very important when organizing a Works Cited page.

I could understand how depending on the perspective of the editor the order of different "annoying sources" could change. Some of these annoyances are relatively easy to resolve (ex. the stupid link) while others require a little more thought and a more thorough reading to edit (ex. am I in the right movie?) because of small tense or singular/plural changes.