Student contribution: Zoe Ellis
Third-year law-student Meera Nelson has committed to doing the references for her assignment “later.”
Our DLSS correspondent caught up with Meera in the library earlier today, where she was furiously tapping out the last thousand words of her assignment.
“I’m just saving myself time. Each time I get to a place I need a reference, I just hit ‘insert footnote.’ It means I don’t break up the flow of my writing to find a citation."
"I’ll come back to them all at the end."
“It’s a commercial law assignment, so every second line has some reference to the Corporations Act. It would be such a waste of time to have to keep flicking to the right section just for a footnote!”
A survey of Deakin Law students revealed that of the students who leave referencing to the end of an assignment, an average of 97% regret this decision. The same survey revealed that the 97% claim they would leave referencing to the end the next time, too.
Our reporter questioned how well Meera had thought out her plan.
“I have forty references, but I’m sure it will be fine. I have a whole hour before it’s due!”
The DLSS correspondent decided not to ask Meera if she had remembered to complete a bibliography.
