Citations in a work of political persuasion

Where is your paper being published?
From my perspective, I think the numbers make for easier reading than line by line parenthetical citations.
I'm not sure the legal answer to your question, but I think for legitimacy each quote needs to be cited for the list of sources at the end of your work, not just a source to cover anything that has been cited. Even though you're not publishing for academic purposes, it's possible that students or professors might want to cite your paper, so I think sticking to academic publishing standards is the best way to go. You never know how your essay will take off and you can't go wrong by adhering to the highest standards.

http://library.duke.edu/research/citing/

Yes, you should cite in-text immediately after a direct quote or paraphrase, or immediately preceding a block quote, as well as then follow with the matching full references at the end, APA style, for maximum CYA. Or, use the MLA. Google the standards you see above, and consider MLA if it is a political paper. But, be rigorous.

1. Following proper citation in-text AND reference list vastly reduces opportunities for accidental plagiarism and deters purposeful theft. You become very conscious of it when you are rigorous.

2. Most serious scholarly people like it for the ABOVE reason, especially those who are skeptical of your POV and rationales. They more than anyone will want to see who you're drawing on and how you are construing their ideas as supporting yours, whether direct or indirect. You are forced to be careful in what you use and how, because it will be really easy for a critic to call BS up front.

Note that last part. Massive citation mania is all too common these days. Many psych papers have more references than a Dennis Miller show. Barrage will also get on others' nerves for that reason, AND because of the clutter effect. When massive numbers of citations are needed, a superscript numbered footnote system is often easier to read through. Many engineering texts do it that way. I've got a couple that go through 20+ in ONE page.

Good luck researching this with respect to the audience. There's certainly plenty of guides online to make it a lot easier these days. Just remember those people are human too. We all had a lot of fun with the massive number of mistakes in APA 6th edition.

EDIT: Yes I know that it isn't an academic forum publishing, but if you want those people to respect you, you have to play to them. Besides, rigorous citation is good CYA.

indiriverflow said:

It's going to be about 70,000 and I will be publishing myself through CreateSpace and eBook distribution.

Click to expand...

That's a helluva long essay! Good luck.