not drawn on the theories, facts and ideas contained in other publications. In
short, by knowing the sources of the writer’s ideas the reader can better
appraise the value of a text.
Assisting Citation
Some systems of citation, of which the APA system is a prominent example,
cite
publications in the text in short form by author and year of publication.
They do this on the basis that the publication contains a full list of references
set out in a table at the end. This permits the author to cite the publication in
the text in abbreviated form since the full citation is given in the bibliography.
Date of Law
A law book should indicate how up to date the law is. This interprets the
information in the book by indicating the possibility that it is no longer correct
because of changes to the law. Common practice is to put this information in
the preface, but it is so important that it should be put under a separate
heading, and put at the front of the book.
To set out the date of law, writers generally just state the date up to which they
researched the law. It can, however, help the reader to be more specific. For
example, for major statutes discussed in the book an author should indicate
the last amendment, and for cases they should state the last edition of the
current law publication (eg Shepards Citations, The Digest or the Australian
Digest) that were referred to when finding relevant cases.
Summary
Some texts have a summary in the text itself, for example at the start or end of
a chapter. Some have a formal summary set out under a heading “Summary”.
In most of the social sciences, as a matter of standard format, an article in a
periodical has a summary at the front entitled “Abstract”. This practice is used
in some legal periodicals but is not standard practice. It should be. Since
knowledge is expanding at an increasing rate, a summary is an invaluable aid to
a researcher in making a preliminary decision as to whether, and to what
extent, a publication is relevant to their research. It also helps in understanding
the text because it highlights the key propositions. Finally, it is worth noting
and remembering that a table of contents constitutes a summary of a text in
point form.
Chronology
If a text is depicting events it can be a considerable advantage to a reader to
set out a chronology of main events to give them some perspective and point
of reference. Such important details can easily become lost in a narrative.
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