Skip to main content

I am currently writing a paper, and I'm required to use in-text citations and to have a reference page at the end. My question is pertaining to the...

Requirements will vary by instructor, and I cannot emphasize enough that your best option would be to contact whoever gave you this assignment to be certain. But there would be nothing wrong with citing the resource you linked to, as it seems to be essentially a compilation of information that is relevant to your topic. An analogy would be quoting from an excerpt from a book that was contained within an anthology rather than using the book itself, and there is really nothing wrong with that. As you say, however, this resource does have pretty extensive references in its own right, and your paper might benefit from tracking a few of them down to learn more about the standards. But my judgement would be that unless you're specifically barred from using sources like this, there would be nothing wrong with citing this compilation as a source--as it says, it is intended to be a resource for professionals ("owners, engineers, architects, and hospital personnel") so it is surely good enough for a paper like the one you're writing.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.