There are a number of good examples of source entries to be found in the Family History Documentation Guidelines by the Silicon Valley PAF Users Group  July 2000.
 
With regard to those who desire total freedom regarding citation of sources, - that's great, and you are free to do as you please. But I am glad that there are some reference standards in place so that when I go to a library I can find what I'm looking for, and I would hope to be able to do the same with genealogical information which I might receive from someone else. 
 
Without some commonly accepted standards It would be very difficult to determine whether Charles John indicated a person with a surname of Charles or a surname of John.  There is already much confusion as to the meaning of 1/10/01 with respect to dates, unless we know whether US or European date convention was used, and the century being referenced.  For that reason, genealogical dates are commonly written as dd mmm yyyy, because it is then perfectly clear what day, month, and year were intended. 
 
People are free to do whatever they want, and ignore the standards if they so desire, but they cannot then expect others to clearly understand what they desire to communicate.  Those who do not want to follow a standard (or guidelines) may ignore them if they so desire, but they have no reason to complain if others want to establish some kind of usage guide.  Go for it, John!!!
 
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