Referencing is the acknowledgement of all the sources you have cited in your assignments, whether you have quoted directly or paraphrased. The Harvard system uses the author – date method; the references in the assignment text are given in brackets and the list of sources is given in a bibliography (or reference list), attached to the assignment. Most of the examples we have given are direct quotes. There is an example of paraphrasing on page 9.

Referencing enables you to:

• show you have researched your topic, for example, articles, books, reference works and electronic resources;
• direct your readers to the information you have used;
• avoid plagiarism.

Citing is a generic term, used for when you refer to any source, either to give an example or to back up an argument.

Traditionally, a bibliography is a list of all the sources you have cited in your assignment, in alphabetical order, with the author’s surname preceding the first name, plus a separate list of sources that have influenced your learning for the assignment but you have not cited from. At Edge Hill, many departments use the term to only include sources you have cited from in your assignment. You should check your course handbook for clarity on this.

The bibliography is attached to the back of your assignment. Where there is no identifiable author (for example in some government documents and on some websites) the name of the organisation replaces an author’s name. Note: some departments call this a reference list, which is the same as our example bibliography.

Example bibliography

Blade Runner: The Director’s Cut. (1992) Directed by Ridley Scott. USA: Warner Bros. [DVD].

Cowley, S. (2004) Getting the Buggers to Think. London: Continuum.

Lynch, R. (2009) ‘Symbolic Narratives: The Dangers of Being an Intertextually Inclined Character’ Studies in the Novel. 41(2) pp. 224-240.

ThinkBuzan.com (2004) ‘ Why Mind Mapping Works: The Proof is Here’ ThinkBuzan.com.
http://www.thinkbuzan.com/uk/ [accessed 10 August 2010].

This depends on what source you are using. The example given here is from a book; examples for other sources will be given with the appropriate FAQ. You will need the following details:

Author/s or Editor/s name/s (usually on the front cover)
The following will all be found in the first couple of pages:
Date of publication
Edition (if there has been more than one)
Place of publication (this will be either a town or a city)
Publisher

Plagiarism means citing another person’s spoken or written words, ideas or inventions, music, and so on, without referencing them. If you read something in a book, journal or web page, or hear something in a radio broadcast or podcast, and you use it in your assignment without referencing it, you have plagiarised. Even if you do not realise you have done it, it suggests that you are passing off someone else’s work as your own, and the offence carries severe penalties that may lead to your expulsion from the programme.

Try this quiz: University of East Anglia Anti-Plagiarism Quiz

Follow this link for more advice on plagiarism:
Appendix 13 - Procedures Relating to Academic Malpractice

Make enough time to plan, research, draft, redraft and proof-read your work. Notes and assignments written in a hurry could easily go unreferenced. If you have an area for academic skills in your subject area on Blackboard, make sure you use it. You will also find resources to help with managing time and getting organised at this link: Academic Skills

Do not copy chunks of text from the Internet and paste them straight into your work. There is danger of plagiarism here because if you do not make a note of where the resource is from, you may forget that it isn’t your own work when you come to look at your essay again. Print off the source, read it critically and select quotes or paraphrase from it. If you do cut and copy text to quote or paraphrase later on, save it in a separate document, with all the details you will need to reference it.

There is advice on how to reference Internet sources in the Electronic Resources section below. If you are having difficulties reading or citing information, speak to your tutor/s or personal tutor.

Quoting is when you use the exact words (a direct quote) from a text or other source in your assignment to illustrate something, or to back up your discussion with theoretical evidence.

You can cite the author before the quote, and put the year and page number in brackets.

Example in the essay text:

According to Cowley (2004:8) ‘discussion really does play an absolutely vital part in the development of thinking’.

Note, the full stop comes after the quotation mark because it finishes off the whole sentence.

Alternatively, cite the author after the quote, and put the year and page number in brackets.

Group work is important when encouraging students to use critical thinking because ‘discussion really does play an absolutely vital part in the development of thinking’ (Cowley, 2004: 8).

Note, the full stop comes after the brackets because it finishes off the whole sentence.

Example in the bibliography:

Cowley, S. (2004) Getting the Buggers to Think. London: Continuum.

Try to avoid very long quotes or your essay will end up like a patchwork quilt, with very little of your own discussion. This is unacceptable in higher education. If you must use the occasional lengthy quote and it is longer than 2 lines:

• Separate it from the text with a colon
• Indent it
• Use single line spacing for the quote (the rest of your essay text should be double-line spaced)
• Do not put quotation marks around it; your tutor can tell it is a quote by the layout and source details

Example in the essay text:

Cowley (2004:114) argues that:

The effective critical thinker employs a number of different techniques during the thinking process. Coming to a definition of critical thinking is actually quite hard because the term encompasses such a wide variety of features.

Example in the bibliography:

Cowley, S. (2004) Getting the Buggers to Think. London: Continuum.

Paraphrasing is when you use information from a source and express it in your own words. The information is not your own so you must still reference it. You don’t need quotation marks or the page number when you paraphrase.

Example in essay text:

Example in the bibliography (this is an Internet source)

Kurland, D. (2001) 'Reading What a Text Says'. The Fundamentals of Critical Reading and Effective Writing.
http://www.criticalreading.com/restatement.htm [accessed 10 August 2010].

Yes - this is important because different editions may contain different material or have different page numbering.

Example in the bibliography:

Springer, S. & Deutsch, G. (1998) Left Brain Right Brain: Perspectives from Cognitive Neuroscience.
5^th ed. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company.

This is called a secondary citation. A word of warning about using secondary citations. It is poor academic practice to take only one or two textbooks and cite too many secondary references from them. Find the original source if you can because you need to see the full context of the citation and you will learn more from using further sources. You will find the details in the bibliography of the book the citation is in. If you cannot find the original author then use a secondary citation.

Example in the essay text:

Oliver (cited in Vella, 2001:42) describes how learners need to ‘construct knowing’. By this, he means that in order to understand and learn new ‘concepts, skills or attitudes’ a learner needs to apply them to real examples of their own.

Example in the bibliography:

Vella, not Oliver, will go in the bibliography because you have not read Oliver’s original work; you read about it in Vella’s book.

Vella, J. (2001) Taking Learning to Task: Creative Strategies for Teaching Adults. London: Continuum.

Edge Hill subscribes to an online bibliographic management tool called RefWorks. It will help you manage, store and share information, as well as generate citations and bibliographies. Access it through the Library Catalogue.
To get started just create an account and have a look at the excellent online tutorials available.
RefWorks run frequent free training webinars, sign up for these at http://www.refworks-cos.com/training/.
For more information ask at any of the helpdesks in the libraries or call the Learning Services helpdesk on 01695 584286.

Example in the essay text (See the General Questions for examples of quoting and paraphrasing)

According to Cowley (2004: 8) ‘discussion really does play an absolutely vital part in the development of thinking’.

Example in the bibliography:

Cowley, S. (2004) Getting the Buggers to Think. London: Continuum.

Example in the essay text for two authors (See the General Questions for examples of quoting and paraphrasing.)

Springer and Deutsch (1998:3) argue that ‘the left brain and the right brain are not identical in their capabilities or organizations’.

Example in the bibliography:

Springer, S. & Deutsch, G. (1998) Left Brain Right Brain: Perspectives from Cognitive Neuroscience.
5^th ed. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company.

Et al. means ‘and others’. For three or more authors or editors, give the name of the first author then ‘et al.’ in your essay text, but you must put all of the authors in your bibliography.

Chaffey, et al. (2003:85) state that those without access to the Internet often experience ‘social exclusion’.

Example in the bibliography (put all the authors in the bibliography)

Chaffey, D., Mayer, R., Johnstone, K. & Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2003)
Internet Marketing Strategy: Implementation and Practice. 2^nd ed. Harlow: Prentice Hall.

Cite the author of the chapter in your essay text (not the editor of the book), in this case, Eyles. (See the General Questions for examples of quoting and paraphrasing)

Example in the essay text:

According to Eyles (2002:219) ‘infectious diseases are then the lenses through which to examine some of the health consequences of globalization’.

Reference the author of the chapter, the editor/s and the book details in your bibliography.

Example in bibliography:

Eyles, J. (2002) ‘Global Change and Patterns of Death and Disease’, In: Johnston, R. J., Taylor, P. J. & Watts, M. J. (eds)
Geographies of Global Change: Remapping the World. 2^nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 216-235.

This will depend on the type of dictionary.

Example in the essay text, from a dictionary written by one author:

Baldick (2008:201) defines ‘meiosis’ as ‘the Greek term for belittling’ an incident by giving it less attention than it deserves. He uses an example from Romeo and Juliet, where Mercutio ‘refers to his mortal wound as a scratch’.

Example in the bibliography:

Baldick, C. (2008) Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. 3^rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.

Example from a dictionary with volumes, in the essay text:

The Oxford English Dictionary (1989: 570) defines ‘meiosis’ as ‘a figure of speech by which the impression is intentionally conveyed that a thing is less in size, importance, etc. than it really is’.

Example in the bibliography:

Simpson, J. A. and Weiner, E. S. C. (eds.) (1989) The Oxford English Dictionary. 2^nd ed. Vol. 9,
Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Example in the essay text

Baillie and Llott (2010:281) argue that ‘promoting patients’ dignity should be of central concern to all healthcare staff, however, the dignity of patients undergoing surgery is particularly vulnerable’.

Example in the bibliography:

Baillie, L & Llott, L.(2004) ‘Promoting the Dignity of Patients in Perioperative Practice’
Journal of Perioperative Practice. 20 (8) pp. 278-282.

Example in the essay text:

Former OfSTED chief, Chris Woodhead, has created more controversy by claiming that Government funding will not save state education and that if private schools were to join in partnership with state schools, they would only be ‘propping up a failing system’ (Smithers, 2005:7).

Example in the bibliography:

Smithers, R. (2005) ‘Ex-Ofsted chief sparks new row’ The Guardian. 13 May, p.7.

Example in essay text (there is no author so reference the organization)

An OfSTED report (2002:3) highlights one of the challenges for English teachers, which is, ‘to maintain a balance between teaching pupils to use language accurately, so as to maximise communication, and encouraging personal interpretation and sufficient choice or originality in composition’.

Example in bibliography (see the Harvard Guide for more examples):

Office for Standards in Education (2002)
Good Teaching Effective Departments: Findings from a HMI Survey of Subject Teaching in Secondary Schools.
HMI 337. London: OfSTED Publications.

Example in bibliography (for a telephone or other interview, add it to the details before ‘interviewed by’ – e.g. Telephone interview by:

Keen, J. Supporting Students with Dyslexia. Interviewed by: Norburn, L.,
Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, U.K. 10 August 2010.

This will depend on the site you want to reference. Some websites have identifiable authors, others do not; information on some sites is easy to find, on others it is not. There are a range of examples in these FAQs and we suggest you follow the links to find the information and see how we have used it. You will need to be able to transfer or adapt these examples, depending on the sites you use. You need to look carefully at the whole page because sometimes the information you need is at the bottom of the page. The main things to look for are:

Name of person or organisation
Title of article
Title of page
Title of website
Date created
Date up-dated (Some sites don’t give this)
URL (web address)

No - you cite web pages as you would books. See the examples below for exact details.

You need to give your reader enough of the link to enable them to get to the source website. See the example below. However, you must also make it very clear in your assignment text, which web page or document you are referring to.

Example in the essay text

Former OfSTED chief, Chris Woodhead, has created more controversy by claiming that Government funding will not save state education and that if private schools were to join in partnership with state schools, they would only be ‘propping up a failing system’ (Smithers, 2005:1).

Example in the bibliography

Smithers, R. (2005) ‘Ex-Ofsted chief sparks new row’ Education Guardian. P.1.
http://education.guardian.co.uk/ [accessed 13 May 2005].

Reference it as you would a hard copy but add the URL and the date you accessed it in your bibliography.

Example in the essay text

Dean discusses the importance of ensuring children are motivated, when considering behaviour management.

Example in the bibliography

Dean, J. (2002) Managing the Primary School. 2^nd ed. London: Routledge.
http://0-site.ebrary.com.library.edgehill.ac.uk/lib/edgehill/ [accessed 10 August 2010].

Make sure you use the Library Catalogue to access journals. If you use a search engine such as Google, you may find journal articles, but when you attempt to download them, you will be asked to pay. Edge Hill subscribes to thousands of journals, which means if you access them via the Library Catalogue, whether on or off campus, you can download them free of charge.

Example in the essay text

Baillie and Llott (2010:281) argue that ‘promoting patients’ dignity should be of central concern to all healthcare staff, however, the dignity of patients undergoing surgery is particularly vulnerable’.

Example in the bibliography:

Baillie, L. & Llott, L. (2010) ‘Promoting the Dignity of Patients in Perioperative Practice’
Journal of Perioperative Practice. 20 (8) pp. 278-282.
http://0proquest.umi.com.library.edgehill.ac.uk/ [accessed 10 August 2010].

Example in the essay text

Former OfSTED chief, Chris Woodhead, has created more controversy by claiming that Government funding will not save state education and that if private schools were to join in partnership with state schools, they would only be “propping up a failing system” (Smithers, 2005:1).

Example in the bibliography

Smithers, R. (2005) ‘Ex-Ofsted chief sparks new row’ Education Guardian. 13 May, P.1.
http://education.guardian.co.uk/ [accessed 13 May 2005].

Note that Wikipedia is unacceptable as an academic source to cite in assignments. You should refer to more reliable sources, via the Library Catalogue.

Example in essay text:

According to one dictionary definition (Ferber, 2007:1 )‘the owl’s cry has sounded “ominous” or omen-filled, and especially prophetic of death’ throughout literary history.

Example in bibliography:

Note – it would be very easy to miss the author on this page. His name is at the bottom of the page in very pale grey font!

Ferber, M. (2007) ‘Owl’ A Dictionary of Literary Symbols. Credo Reference.
http://0-www.credoreference.com.library.edgehill.ac.uk/ [accessed 20 July 2010].