An introduction to referencing and how to use references in your Studies

The main types of references you will include in your work ..

Books

Generally, you will reference an e-book in the same way as you would reference a printed book (i.e. there is no need for a web address/URL or database name)

This is what a chapter from an edited book would look like (this is when the chapters are written by different authors).

Journals

Websites

Harvard Referencing 1 (Video) - Explains what referencing is and how to construct basic references

This video last 30 minutes and covers what referencing is and how to construct references for books, journal articles and websites.

There are 2 ways to cite in the text:

1. When the the author is not part of the sentence so both the author's name and the year go in brackets at the end of the sentence, e.g. (Norman, 2012).
2. When the author is part of the sentence, so the year goes into brackets, e.g. "Norman (2012) states that ..."

There are advantages and disadvantages to both ways. You should try and use both ways in your writing.

Verbs for viewpoints

The verb you choose can indicate how much you agree with the viewpoint of the author. Vary your verbs to show these points – it will help with developing your case or argument in your assignment. If something is generally accepted, don’t use a verb like ‘argue’ or ‘claim’.

Academic Phrasebank is a really useful website to help you with you academic vocabulary.

This short tutorial goes through the basics of how to use in-text citations:

Have a look at these incorrect in-text citations and see if you can spot the mistakes:

• According to (Smith, 2007), there is no strong evidence ….
• According to Smith, 2009, there is little evidence ….
• Fred Smith (2010) argued that there was little evidence ….
• In her book ‘Writing for University’, Godfrey (2011) advised …

This is how we would have used the in-text citations for those sentence starters:

• According to Smith (2007), there is no strong evidence ….
• According to Smith (2009), there is little evidence ….
• Smith (2010) argued that there was little evidence ….
• Godfrey (2011) advised …

Where the author is part of the sentence, the date needs to be in the brackets but the author's surname goes outside of the brackets.

Only the author’s surname and the date need to be included in your citations - you don't need to include the details of the book or journal, as you will put that in your reference list.

A comparative study on properties built within the last twenty years and older houses, clearly illustrated the financial and environmental benefits of investing time and money in improving home insulation. A recent survey and video underlined that as much as a third of the heat generated in homes is lost through the walls or the roof as a result of poor insulation.

This paragraph does need in-text citations, as it is based on evidence and research from other people - it clearly refers to a comparative study a survey and a video but does not give any information about what they are or how the reader would find them.

So, here's where we would have put the in-text citations (bold added for emphasis).

A comparative study conducted by Bowman and Jenkins (2011), on properties built within the last twenty years and older houses, clearly illustrated the financial and environmental benefits of investing time and money in improving home insulation. A recent survey (Thermascan, 2012) and video (Norman, 2012) underlined that as much as a third of the heat generated in homes is lost through the walls or the roof as a result of poor insulation.

Here are some examples of quotes and paraphrasing:

This short tutorial goes through the basics of how to paraphrase:

Harvard Referencing 2 (Video) - Paraphrasing and Using Citations

This video lasts 14 minutes and covers what paraphrasing is and when/how to include an in-text citation: