I hear a lot of misunderstanding regarding citations, so I feel
compelled to address the subject with a series of articles. What
are the basic principles governing citations? Principle #1 –
Citations Have Two Purposes We provide citations to our sources
for two major reasons, although we generally vocalize just one:
1. To locate our sources There is another very important, yet
often overlooked reason for citing sources: 2. To communicate
the strength of our sources “Source citations have two
purposes,” says Elizabeth Shown Mills in Evidence Explained. She
writes that a citation should deal with “[second reason:] a
source’s quality and content, not just [first reason:] identity
and whereabouts.” 1 Turabian says that citing facts allows
readers to “[second reason:] judge their reliability, even
[first reason:] check them if they wish.” 2 An article in The
Florida Bar Journal states that Citation forms provide the
minimum amount of information necessary to [first reason:] lead
the reader to the source and [secon