I understand the idea of giving people credit for their work, absolutely reasonable
But let’s say APA and Harvard have a different style for references is there any real advantage of one over the other and why are both so specific with formatting
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Different disciplines use different styles for reasons specific to their fields.
[This page](https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/undergraduates/using-sources/principles-citing-sources/why-are-there-different-citation-styles) gives a pretty good basic rundown as to why each discipline uses the style it uses.
And really, once you make it a practice, the formatting stops feeling so arcane and becomes no different than any other rules of grammar.
Which is to say that, as long as you understand what components need to be in place and can arrange them in a way that’s intelligible to the audience that you’re presenting it to, nobody actually really cares that much if you break the rules a little.
It’s not just about giving people credit for their work – someone that knows what they’re doing will also look to your citations to evaluate the quality of your work and to examine how you constructed your argument, and may use those sources to build on or challenge your work.
So making sure that framework of references is intelligible to the reader and is presented in a way that gives them all the information they need for the discipline you’re working in is really important.
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