Nijay offers some thoughts on citing other scholars and reflects on some advice one of his mentors gave him during the writing phase of his dissertation:
At one point, this same mentor used the analogy that I was hiding behind my sledgehammer in my attempt to crack eggshells.
Discussion follows–I particular like Jason’s comment in which he quotes advice I. H. Marshall gave him:
Howard Marshall after my first few drafts, heavily laden with footnotes: “Let us remember that this is a British dissertation, not a German one. And the British have it right.”
Perhaps we should think of footnoting as an art form, not a science?
Go give the original post a read.