Research Oxford Style Papers

Besides the two most common writing styles, APA and MLA, there is oxford writing style. Though not common, it is also very applicable in writing of research oxford style papers. Like all the other writing styles, oxford writing style has well defined set of rules and guidelines that distinguish it from or shares with all other writing styles. The rules and guidelines are specific for both formats in citations within text and for referencing procedures. Oxford style is referred to as a mode of referencing for documentary cum note which makes it more common in the fields of philosophy as well as history and on fewer occurrences in other fields. The major reason behind this designation is because it combines several features as in footnotes, endnotes, citations inside text as well as marked up bibliographic attachments. In oxford style papers, the citation within the text is made up of markers in form of numbers that are usually above the line of text that is, supra-script numerals. Each of the markers touches on to a particular footnote or endnote which contains the reference for the citation or any significant additional information. One characteristic of the markers in oxford style papers is that they can be specific based on each chapter available in the paper or they can be consecutively used throughout the entire paper. Furthermore, a marker must be used each time one borrows work from another person’s work and their numbering must be chronological in the order which they are encountered, and referring only to a given endnote or footnote at the end of the statement not after the section they point to. The only exception occurs in referring to specific quotes where markers are put immediately after. Another important concept of oxford style papers occurs when summarizing and/or paraphrasing. Both of them are allowed but they are done differently. When summarizing, one is allowed to used own words and shorten a given work to a paragraph or two while including only the attention drawing and necessary information. On the other hand, paraphrasing is the act of describing the relevance of other people’s work using one’s own word in just a sentence or two. The third and significant concept of oxford style papers is the inclusion of footnotes and endnotes. In correspondence to the inside the lines markers, footnotes and endnotes are numbered consecutively. Oxford style papers use full citation to cite a source when first encountered and the name, date, and page are used for all other notes occurring after this. In addition, the term ibid is used in oxford style papers to reference work from the same source as the one mentioned earlier including the page numbers if necessary. An additional function of footnotes and endnotes in oxford style papers is to note the other relevant materials or side comments in the same sequence of numbering. For endnotes, they occur at the end of the paper just before the bibliography but can occur at the end of particular chapters as well. Oxford style papers have the bibliography section titled ‘annotated bibliography’ which occur after the paper. Annotation is because each reference must include a brief explanation of the cited work and its significance. Quotations in oxford style papers must have markers at the end.