Referencing guide

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Referencing guide

As part of your study with the University of Essex Online, you are asked to include wider reading in your discussion
posts and written assignments. It is important to understand the conventions required when including the ideas of
others in your own work. This referencing guide will assist you in developing and maintaining your understanding of
referencing, and it will provide instructions explaining how you should provide and format in-text citations and a
complete reference list.

Please note that the same referencing rules apply to discussion posts. Although discussions are a somewhat less
formal academic exercise, if you employ outside resources you still must follow the same conventions of
referencing outlined in this guide. Rather than cut and paste large blocks of text from the internet, you might
provide a short description of the material sourced there and the URL. In this way your post is kept to a
manageable size and your fellow students are able to access the useful information that you have found.

Using wider reading effectively

You may incorporate wider reading in your work through:

 Direct quotation: where you provide the exact words of your source in quotation marks, and/or;
 Paraphrasing: where you rephrase your source’s ideas or work in your own words.

However you decide to include source material, it should be chosen selectively and should not be a replacement
for your own work or thought on the question. In both instances, you must give the author credit by providing an in-
text citation and a corresponding entry in the List of References at the end of your paper.

Don’t let your source material speak for you. It should not just be included in your work without discussion or
commentary because you need to demonstrate why it is relevant to your argument and engage with its ideas.
Source material is best used as support for your argument and as a point for discussion and reference. It is
important to remember that no more than 15% of your paper should be from source material. For assignments that
call for a word count of 1000, this would be under 150 words (600 word assignment, 90 words).

Develop good habits

While the internet is a convenient way to find source material, students sometimes get into trouble with plagiarism
because of poor research and filing practices. Consider the following advice when researching:

 Never cut and paste text from the internet into your assignment. This includes quotations used in others’
work;
 Take notes carefully, detailing the source and page number so that you can refer back to it easily, or
reference it correctly in your work without needing to revisit the original material. Source cards and a good
filing system are recommended;
 While planning your work, differentiate between source material and your own ideas in your notes.
 Use quotation marks around sourced text;
 If you take notes on your computer, be sure that you title the document ‘Notes for Assignment 2’ rather
than ‘Assignment 2’.

*** Please scroll down for more information***

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 Referencing guide

Referencing styles
There are many different styles of referencing, such as APA, Chicago, MHRA, MLA, Turabian. The following guide
will help you to understand how to accurately reference your work through the use of in-text citations according to
the conventions of Harvard Style. This follows the University of Essex referencing guidelines for students.

Complete referencing requires acknowledgment of all source material through:

1. Quotation marks around quoted (but not paraphrased) text;

2. Inclusion of an in-text citation before or after quoted and paraphrased material;
3. A corresponding entry containing full source information in the List of References at the end of the discussion
post or paper;
4. A Bibliography section containing details of any sources that you have found useful but not specifically used. It
isn’t necessary to include a Bibliography if you have referred to all of your sources within your text,

*Please Note: If you cite from your module textbook or other course readings made available within the module
then you must still follow the guidelines for full referencing.

1. Quotation Marks
When you identify information in your wider reading that is relevant to your work, the first thing to do is decide how
to integrate that information. That is, whether to quote or to paraphrase.

A quote can have much more impact, as it is a word for word copy of the original, and it allows for accuracy when
representing another author’s ideas. It should be short, so a couple of sentences rather than a full paragraph, and it
will allow you to support your point concisely. Quotes can be particularly useful if the original words are well-stated
or unforgettable, and they are ideal if, for example, you are defining a term. Importantly, quoting allows you to show
where your work is clearly supported by an authoritative source, enhancing credibility.

Should you choose to use a direct quotation, this must be made immediately visible as such. A quote should be
placed within quotation marks or inverted commas, so that it is clear where your writing stops and another person’s
begins. Make sure to use a pair of quotation marks or inverted commas, so your reader also knows where the
quote ends.

2. In-text citations

The in-text citation, or just the citation, is placed within the text, either before or after the quote or paraphrase. It
should only be brief and is actually really quite uniformed, regardless of source type. There are three key pieces of
information required in a citation:

 The author, whether that is a person or an organisation

 The year of publication, or N.D for no date if the date is unknown.
 The page number. This is optional and is only needed if a page number is given at all, for instance if using a
book, but not necessarily when using a website.

If there are no page numbers, include the chapter, following the format give in the example below:

(Smith, 2013, Chapter 2)

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 Referencing guide
Please note at this point that citations should be brief. They should contain minimal information so as not to
overcrowd your work or detract attention from the point you are making. In particular, you should never place a URL
within your work as this will negatively affect your presentation and your work will immediately appear untidy.

3. List of references
Every essay or report that includes quoted material must have a List of References included at the end. This must
be included even if you only use one quotation or paraphrase in your paper. For every in-text citation within your
writing, there should be a matching reference entry because these work in pairs. The author and date information
placed in the citation must be repeated in the corresponding reference entry, so that it is easy for your reader to
identify this relationship.

The Harvard Style of referencing formats this list in alphabetical order, according to the first letter of the
author’s surname, e.g. Chapman, A. and not A Chapman. If there is no author, you may use ‘Anon’. However, it
would be important to consider if an anonymous source would serve as the best and most credible/reliable source
to support your point. If there is a corporate author, e.g. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, you
would alphabetise by the second word, so ‘Royal’ here, ignoring ‘the’, an’ or ‘a’ in the title.

How you format each individual reference entry depends on the type of source involved. In the following pages, you
will find out how to reference a variety of source formats.

4. Bibliography

Different institutions may follow different referencing guidelines, even when using the same referencing style. This
could cause confusion should you search for and use an alternative referencing guide during your studies. One
guideline which you will find does vary among institutions relates to the purpose of a Bibliography section.

To clarify, the University of Essex Online requires that you only use a Bibliography section should you wish to
acknowledge those sources which you have found useful during your research for an assignment, but which you
have not directly quoted or paraphrased from. For each entry in the Bibliography, you should follow the same
formatting rules as you would in the List of References (see below).

Paraphrasing
Re-wording a passage from another source does not make it your own work. Furthermore, a good paraphrase
does not just change a few words, or the order of the words in a sentence. A successful paraphrase is your
interpretation of another person’s work/ideas and it demonstrates that you understand and have engaged with the
material. This approach also allows you to avoid overwhelming your reader with large blocks of ‘undigested’
quotations.

Learning to paraphrase takes practice. You may need to read an original passage several times before you fully
understand the key ideas and concepts and are able to represent the author's ideas accurately and appropriately in
your own words.

As with quoting, when you paraphrase from another source, you are still required to give that source credit in an in-
text citation and an entry in the List of References. You may wish to use a specific phrase from the original, and
this is acceptable, as long as you clearly show that within quotation marks. Here is an example of a quote:

'The trouble with much of the advice business gets today about the need to be more vigorously creative is that its
advocates often fail to distinguish between creativity and innovation. Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation
is doing new things’ (Peters and Waterman, 1982: 206).

And here is a paraphrase that also employs a quotation from the source:

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 Referencing guide

Peters and Waterman (1982: 206) view the recommendations of some advisers which stress the need for
businesses to foster creativity problematic, arguing that some proponents ‘often fail to distinguish between
creativity and innovation’.

Fundamentals of referencing in Harvard Style

Below you will find details of how you are expected to reference a variety of sources in your work. As University of
Essex Online students, you are required to use the Harvard style of referencing. Please note that formatting
requirements are likely to vary from one institution to another, and therefore we recommend that you use this guide
to assist you rather than one belonging to another University.

As mentioned above, in-text citations always contain two or three pieces of information: the author, year of
publication, and page number if provided. The formatting of citations is quite standardised and for the majority of
sources, the way you present a citation will be the same. For more details, please listen to the second referencing
podcast: Referencing your Sources: The Specifics.

There are two main ways that you can integrate an in-text citation into your work:

- Within the sentence. For example: According to Wallace (2004: 60), “in most higher education courses you
will be expected to do more than simply learn the information given to you by your teacher”. In this case, the
author name forms part of the sentence, so should not be placed in brackets.

- Following the quote/paraphrase but within the same sentence, so before the full stop. For example: It
has been suggested that “In most higher education courses you will be expected to do more than simply learn
the information given to you by your teacher” (Wallace, 2004: 60). Here, the citation does not form part of your
sentence, so all of the information would be included within brackets to segregate it.

An in-text citation should always be contained within the same sentence as the quote or paraphrase which it relates
to. Below is an example taken from Harold Winter’s The Economics of Crime (2008) and shows how not to
punctuate a sentence which includes a quote:

“The key issue . . . is whether crime is reduced because individuals who have committed criminal
activities are caught, convicted, and punished, or also because potential criminals are deterred from
committing criminal acts in the first place”. (Winter, 2008) It could be argued that...

Key points to remember

1. An in-text citation and reference work in pairs. For all in-text citations, there should always be a corresponding
reference, which begins with the exact same author and date information, so that the reader can locate this
easily in the List of References. For example, if your citation reads (Jones, 2011), the reference entry should
begin:

Jones, M. (2011)...

Please note that the author’s initial only appears in the reference entry – not the in-text citation.

2. If you cannot find the date of the source, you should add N.D. for ‘no date’ in the space reserved for the date.

In the following pages, the major focus will be on how you should format the reference entries provided in the List
of References. Examples of citations will also be provided in the interest of clarity.

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Referencing guide

Referencing a webpage

Template reference format:

Author’s (or authors’) surname, initial/s

(year of publication, or N.D. if not given)
Title of web page. Online at full URL
[Access date in square brackets].

Example quote and citation:

“Branding is one of the most important

aspects of any business, large or small,
retail or B2B. An effective brand strategy
gives you a major edge in increasingly
competitive markets” (Williams, 2005).

Corresponding reference:

Williams, J. (2005) The Basics of Branding. Online at http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/77408

[Accessed: 4 March 2010]

*Please Note: if the web page provides page numbers you would include them in the citation as well
(author/organisation name, date: page number). You would not provide them in the reference entry.

Referencing a textbook
Template reference format:

Author’s (or authors’) surname, initial/s. (year of publication) Book Title in italics. Place of publication: publisher

Example quote and citation:

“In most higher education courses you will be expected to do more than simply learn the information given to you
by your teacher or presented in your coursebook. You will also be expected to find out things through your own
research” (Wallace, 2004: 60).

Corresponding reference:

Wallace, M. (2004) Study Skills in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

*Please Note: You do not need to provide the page number(s) in the reference list.

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Referencing guide

Referencing an e-book

Template reference format:

The first part of a reference entry for an e-book is identical to that for a standard book. The second part should
include additional information: where the book was retrieved (library, website etc.), the exact URL, and the access
date in square brackets (this is the date that you viewed the e-book).

Example quote and citation:

Tosey and Gregory (2001: 121) define personal development as “the process through which
each individual gravitates towards achieving their human potential”.

Corresponding reference:

Tosey, P. and Gregory, J. (2001) Dictionary of Personal Development. Brisbane: WileyBlackwell.

Online via the Kaplan Online Library at http://libsys.uah.edu:305 [Accessed: 21 June 2012]

Referencing a Kindle e-book

Books accessed via a Kindle or other e-reader won’t necessarily contain page numbers, so within the citation it is
best to refer to a chapter number to help your reader locate the quote, for example: (Taylor, 2014: chapter 3). It then
needs to be clear in the reference entry that this is a Kindle (or similar) source. Format your references like this:

Tosey, P. and Gregory, J. (2001) Dictionary of Personal Development. Brisbane: Wiley Blackwell 3.0.
Kindle version. Available from: website address [Accessed: date you accessed the text]

Referencing a Vitalsource Bookshelf e-book

Books accessed via the Vitalsource Bookshelf may not necessarily contain page numbers, so within the citation it is
best to refer to a chapter number to help your reader locate the quote, for example: (Taylor, 2014: chapter 3). It then
needs to be clear in the reference entry that this is an e-book from the Vitalsource Bookshelf. Format your
references like this:

Tosey, P. and Gregory, J. (2001) Dictionary of Personal Development. Brisbane: Wiley

Blackwell. Online via the Vitalsource Bookshelf. [Accessed: 21 June 2012]

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Referencing guide
Referencing an edited book

Edited books are those which contain several chapters that have been written by different authors, but collated by
one or more editors. As a student, it is not unusual for you to quote from an edited book, and indeed, the core-texts
for several of our modules take this format.

The in-text citation:

You should acknowledge the author of the chapter, rather than the editor of the book, and the year that the book
was published. For example:

“Arguments that women are treated either more leniently or more harshly than men in the
criminal justice system are found in academic texts and in popular representations of women
who offend” (Beckett, 2008: 393).

Corresponding reference:

You would then use the author of the chapter to identify the corresponding reference, by placing this first in the
reference entry. Still, the title and editor(s) of the book should also be given recognition, as without this, the reader
may be unable to locate the chapter. The reference for the above citation would be as follows:

Beckett, C. (2008) ‘Working with Female Offenders’, in S. Green, E. Lancaster and S.Feasey
(eds). Addressing Offending Behaviour – Context, Practice and Values. Devon, England: Willan
Publishing.

For an edited e-book, you would simply add the URL location to the reference entry and access date. For
example:

Beckett, C. (2008) ‘Working with Female Offenders’, in S. Green, E. Lancaster and S.Feasey
(eds). Addressing Offending Behaviour – Context, Practice and Values. Devon, England: Willan
Publishing. Online via Google Books at
http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Addressing_Offending_Behaviour.html?id=iqKHAvDpbp8
C [Accessed: 2 August 2012]

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Referencing guide
Referencing a journal/magazine

Template reference format:

Author’s (or authors’) surname, initial/s. (year of publication) Article Title. Journal/magazine title in italics, volume
number (issue number if given, in brackets) or special edition name, and inclusive page numbers for the entire
article.

The in-text citation for a paraphrase:

“Green business has soared over the past decade, with companies of all sizes taking steps to
reduce their carbon footprint, reduce wastage and make environmentally sound choices…”
(Marshall, 2009: 212).

Corresponding reference:

Marshall, L. (2009) Keeping businesses thinking green in tough times. Moderngov, 2009
Conference edition: 212

*Please Note: 212 above is the page number. In the in-text citation, only the page where the source material is
found is included but you must include all of the inclusive page numbers (for the entire article, e.g. 1-101) in the List
of References (see e-journal example below). This article is only one page in length, which is why only one page
number is given in the example reference.

Referencing an e-journal

Template reference format:

The first part of a reference entry for an e-journal is identical to that for a standard journal. The second part should
include additional information: where the journal was retrieved (library, website etc.), the exact URL, and the
access date in square brackets (this is the date that you viewed the e-journal). The template format is as follows:

Author’s (or authors’) surname, initial/s. (year of publication) Article Title. Journal/magazine title
in italics, volume number (issue number if given, in brackets) or special edition name, and
inclusive page numbers for the entire article (these are not always available for web journals),
where the journal was retrieved (library, website etc.), the exact URL, and the access date in
square brackets (this is the date that you viewed the e-book).

Example reference:

Zimmerman, B. (1990) Self-Regulated Learning and Academic Achievement: An Overview.

Educational Psychologist 25 (1): 3-17. Online at EBSCO via the Kaplan University elibrary at
http://ehis.ebscohost.com.lib.kaplan.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=fdbecae0-c145-42ac
99980d407fcf96a6%40 sessionmgr12&vid=4&hid=5 [Accessed: 22nd March 2013]

*Please Note: In the example above, 3-17 are the inclusive page numbers of the article. EBSCO is the database
and the University of Birmingham e-library is the location where the journal was found. Additionally, the URL is not
in hyperlink format (it is provided in black type, and not blue).

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Referencing guide

Referencing a secondary source

On occasion, you may wish to quote the ideas of one author which have been quoted by another. It is always best
to locate the original source, but when this is not possible, it is entirely appropriate to cite the source as follows:

The in-text citation:

Self regulation has been defined as “learning that results from students’ self-generated thoughts
and behaviors…” (Schunk, 2001, as cited in Muis, 2007).

Corresponding reference:

The corresponding entry in the List of References should indicate the source where you found the quotation. In the
example above, this would be for Muis rather than Schunk, like this:

Muis, K (2007) The Role of Epistemic Beliefs in Self-Regulated Learning. Educational

Psychologist 42 (3): 173-190. Online at EBSCO via the Kaplan University elibrary
http://ehis.ebscohost.com.lib.kaplan.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=0a7e8685-fdf4-4374-
86d2-fd250e46a6f3%40sessionmgr12&vid=4&hid=5 [Accessed: 22nd March 2013]

Referencing a piece of work you have

previously submitted

Should you wish to directly quote or paraphrase

your own words from a previous submission that
has been awarded a grade, it is important that you
correctly cite and reference yourself. Otherwise you
risk self-plagiarising, and this is classed as an
academic offence (see A1. b. in Academic
Offences Policy and Procedures).

The in-text citation:

‘Following research into the area of offender

profiling, it could be argued that it is difficult to
establish the success of this method in identifying
and convicting an offender’ (Your surname, date
original work was submitted).

Template reference format:

Your surname, initial. (date of original submission) ‘Assignment title in inverted commas’. Paper submitted to
University of Essex Online for [insert name of the module in which you originally submitted the work]

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Referencing guide

Referencing an image, graph or table

When reproducing an image, diagram, graph or table in your work, you should always acknowledge the original
author by citing and referencing the source, as you would for any written quote or paraphrase.

Beneath the image, graph or table, you must provide a title and then place the citation in brackets. One example
would be:

Note: You must title all

graphs/tables/images etc. Place the title
directly beneath the illustration.

Graphs and images are known as

Figures. If presenting a table, Figure is
replaced by ‘Table’. All illustrations
should be numbered, e.g. Table 1, Table
2 etc.

Figure 1: UK earnings based on age and qualifications in 2010 (Office for National Statistics, 2011)

Your report should then continue in a new paragraph, leaving a line space between the title and your writing.

In the Reference section, you should provide the reference as you would for a direct quote or paraphrase, making
sure to follow the formatting rules for the source type. The reference for this graph would be:

Office for National Statistics (2011) Graduate Earnings Over the Last Decade, 2011. Online at
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171776_233872.pdf [Accessed: 26th March 2013]

Referencing an interview or personal communication

The in-text citation:

According to John Smith (4 March 2010), followed by either a “quotation” or a summary of his
ideas through a paraphrase.

Or:

“The quotation” (John Smith, 4 March 2010).

Corresponding reference:

Smith, John (4 March 2010) Contextual information, e.g. personal communication, lecture,
interview

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Referencing guide
Referencing a newspaper

Author’s (or authors’) surname, initial/s. (full date of publication) Article Title, title of the newspaper in italics, and
inclusive page numbers.

The in-text citation:

The full date would be provided in the in-text citation for a quote or paraphrase taken from a newspaper. It would
look like this:

Phillip Pank (March 4, 2010) reports that “A thousand British Airways staff will have completed
cabin crew training by next week to keep flights going in the event of a strike”.

*Please Note: If there is no author's name given you would provide the name of the newspaper, date and year
issued e.g. ‘The best solution would be an IMF standby facility’ (Financial Times, March 4, 2010).

Corresponding reference:

Pank, P. (March 4, 2010) The short view. Financial Times. 17

*Please Note: This is a one-page article (page 17).

Referencing an online newspaper

The in-text citation would look the same as the above entry for a newspaper.

Template reference format:

Author’s (or authors’) surname, initials. (full date of publication), Article Title, title of the newspaper in italics, URL,
[date accessed in square brackets]

Example reference:

Pank, P. (March 4, 2010) BA retrains 1,000 staff to counter strike. The Times Online. Available at
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article7048743.ece
[Accessed: 5 March 2010].

Referencing a broadcast

Reference format:

Name of producer of programme (e.g. BBC), (year in brackets) Title in italics. Place of production (if known), name
of production company (if known). Full details of transmission (radio, television, day and time).

The in-text citation:

“The sudden death of heavy industry in the 1980's left a trail of abandoned, poisoned land across
the country from South Wales, and the Black Country to the northeast of England and central
Scotland” (British Broadcasting Corporation, 1 March 2010).

Corresponding reference:

British Broadcasting Corporation (2010) Costing the Earth: The Big Clean Up. (Transmitted on
BBC Radio 4 at 9pm on 1 March)

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Referencing guide
Referencing a YouTube Video

Reference format:

Author’s surname/ organisation’s name, initial(s). (date video was uploaded to YouTube) Title of YouTube Video.
Online at: YouTube URL Link [Accessed: date you accessed the video]

The in-text citation:

When referencing a YouTube video within your writing, the in-text citation must be present and in the following
format depending upon what resource information you have available to you:

(Surname of the person who uploaded the video/ organisation’s name of who uploaded the video, Date that the
video was uploaded)

Individual (Frank, 2015)

Organisation (QualiaSoup, 2009)

Corresponding reference:

Qualia Soup (2009) Critical Thinking. Online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OLPL5p0fMg

[Accessed: 11th November 2016]

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