Man, I am absolutely fucked, when I go back to Uni, then (if they use this updated “Style Guide”)…
It’s usually AP/APA and/or Chicago, depending on faculty and/or unit, but I generally ignore it except when it comes to referencing, lol, and I almost always got away with that, even if I didn’t… “Ace” anything, lol…
Harvard is still good, because it’s easy, if nothing else, but most “academics” these days seem to hate it for exactly that reason…
Also, the “recency bias” and “online bias” (vs books/actual printed journals) in academia is so laughable as to frankly make a mockery of the whole thing, at least in my field…
Not sure how many others have dealt with this, but my most recent university threw out and sold off two whole floors (!!) of books, journals, case studies and communal computer terminals, even pre-covid, in order to create more “group work space”, “comfortable chairs”, “own device spaces” and “hang out areas”…
I was genuinely mortified…
I haven’t been back there since Coof, but you know what? I would honestly be unsurprised if there is hardly a single book, or computer terminal, left in there… Which is… Extremely depressing.
I’ve seen this happen in backpackers hostels (not so much of a thing in the US, but the Europeans will get it), hotels and shopping malls, too… And even public parks!! The general gutting of “communal spaces” and the shit people go to these places to do, which don’t cost money or require “your own device”, or some sort of… “BYO”.
But at the same time, all of those places have gutted the perks of “‘membership”, to the point where it is almost entirely pointless to actually sign up for anything… The Youth Hostel Association (it’s a thing) here went from something that I was a member of, and therefore had voting rights, to an almost purely money-making front, while still somehow retaining its “non-profit status”…
Ironically, the “non-profit” thing means, much like Universities, the equivalent of shareholders have even LESS say over board decisions…
Something very weird is going on in “Western” society, and I honestly think we are headed for a crunch…
If i was a student again, I would draw up a 2-paragraph explanation of why I will not comply with the AP style guidelines or the usage guides in the typical handbook advising against "sexist usage" and attach it to any essays I compose.
If I was still teaching, I would, as always, provide my own style guide that avoids them.
Man, I am absolutely fucked, when I go back to Uni, then (if they use this updated “Style Guide”)…
It’s usually AP/APA and/or Chicago, depending on faculty and/or unit, but I generally ignore it except when it comes to referencing, lol, and I almost always got away with that, even if I didn’t… “Ace” anything, lol…
Harvard is still good, because it’s easy, if nothing else, but most “academics” these days seem to hate it for exactly that reason…
Also, the “recency bias” and “online bias” (vs books/actual printed journals) in academia is so laughable as to frankly make a mockery of the whole thing, at least in my field…
Not sure how many others have dealt with this, but my most recent university threw out and sold off two whole floors (!!) of books, journals, case studies and communal computer terminals, even pre-covid, in order to create more “group work space”, “comfortable chairs”, “own device spaces” and “hang out areas”…
I was genuinely mortified…
I haven’t been back there since Coof, but you know what? I would honestly be unsurprised if there is hardly a single book, or computer terminal, left in there… Which is… Extremely depressing.
I’ve seen this happen in backpackers hostels (not so much of a thing in the US, but the Europeans will get it), hotels and shopping malls, too… And even public parks!! The general gutting of “communal spaces” and the shit people go to these places to do, which don’t cost money or require “your own device”, or some sort of… “BYO”.
But at the same time, all of those places have gutted the perks of “‘membership”, to the point where it is almost entirely pointless to actually sign up for anything… The Youth Hostel Association (it’s a thing) here went from something that I was a member of, and therefore had voting rights, to an almost purely money-making front, while still somehow retaining its “non-profit status”… Ironically, the “non-profit” thing means, much like Universities, the equivalent of shareholders have even LESS say over board decisions…
Something very weird is going on in “Western” society, and I honestly think we are headed for a crunch…
Rant out.
If i was a student again, I would draw up a 2-paragraph explanation of why I will not comply with the AP style guidelines or the usage guides in the typical handbook advising against "sexist usage" and attach it to any essays I compose.
If I was still teaching, I would, as always, provide my own style guide that avoids them.