Variations on ‘De Buck’

Some Dutch authors choose to use a style that differs somewhat from ‘De Buck’ in certain ways. We are talking about small matters, such as a comma in front of ‘in’, leaving out the brackets around the place and date of an edition, or the use of ‘p.’ or ‘pp.’ to indicate page numbers when rendering numbers.

Authors may also name the publisher of the work as well as the place of publication. The reference below also mentions the year of the original edition (between brackets) as well as the year of the edition or version the author consulted. The number 28 refers to a page number.

In your course, you will be trained to annotate very accurately and systematically with the ‘De Buck Style’. Even if you decide to deviate from this style later, there are two principles you should bear in mind:

• 1. Use your style of annotation consistently. Make sure that you are very familiar with it so that you do not waste time putting your notes in the right order. Some programmes such as EndNote can help you keep track.

• 2. Do not create a style of your own but follow a style that is used by others in the same field. Save your creativeness for the text itself. The purpose of references is to help the reader find the cited passages with ease. This means that it must be possible for the reader to see the information on which you have based your text at a glance.

That does not mean that a reference should never include information that does not suit an existing style of annotation. Extra information that is relevant to finding the source to which you refer may (or must) always be provided. Always remember that the references are intended to help the reader trace the source you cite as easily as possible.