Referencing Sources
Useful Resources:
Essential Articles
Fact File
Issues
Useful Websites:
www.idebate.org/index.php
(debatabase)
www.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk
(UK Newsstand)
Hot Topics
Your Call
Quotations
www.independence.co.uk
(issues key facts)
Avoiding Plagiarism
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Your essay has to be your own work.
For discursive essays you can read and/or quote from
existing materials.
Ensure that any source you are going to use is
correctly referenced.
Every time you look at a source make a note of its
details, and the date you looked at it.
By doing this you know what you looked at when,
and you have a record of it for your reference list.
Your sources can then be easily found by anyone
who reads your work, so that if necessary they can
check them for evidence.
How to use your sources
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Every direct quote you make should be in
inverted commas.
All information not in quotation marks
should be written in your own words.
Cutting and pasting is NOT allowed.
Rewording or summarising information from
a source and not referencing it is also
plagiarism.
At the end of your essay write a reference
list containing any sources you have cited in
your text.
Citing sources in your work
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Whenever you refer to information from a
source or use a direct quote you need to
acknowledge this in the body of your work.
Just give the author’s name and the date in
brackets.
eg (Smith, 2009)
The full reference will be in the list at the end
of your essay.
What source information do
you need?
Web sources
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The most important details you need are the
web address (url), and the date you accessed
the site.
If the information is from an article within the
website you will need to try and find the
author and title of the article as well as when
it was first written.
How to find author
information from a web site
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Check the bottom and top
of the article to see if there
is an author’s name and/or
copyright details.
Click on the home page of the website and
read the “about us” section to see if you can
find a name.
Check to see if there are any references
within the article which might help.
Referencing a web source with
an author
Use the following format:
Author/editor (date written) Title Available from: url
(date accessed)
eg:
Richardson, H (14 May 2010)Universites say students
may face earlier loan payback Available from:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/10115822.stm
(accessed 14/05/2010)
Referencing a web source
with no author
Economic and Social Research Council (2007)
Security and Terrorism in the UK Available
from: http://www.independence.co.uk/issuesonline (accessed 18/05/2010)
Referencing a book source
Find the information by using the title page and the
back of the title page – NOT the cover.
The format should be:
Author/Editor’s Surname, Initials (year of publication)
Title (series) Place of publication: publisher
Note: -if there is an editor rather than an author put
(ed.) after the editor’s name
Example of a book reference
Kobasa, Paul A (ed.)(2008) Earthquakes
(Library of Natural disasters) Chicago:
World Book
Referencing an article from a
book containing a collection of
articles
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The format should be:
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Author (date) ‘Title of article’ orig publication,
in Title of book issue info (date) page ref
Example:
 Kelly, J (2009) ‘Are girls better than boys’
Baby Essentials in Essential Articles 12
(2010) p.84
Reference List
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Put all the sources of information you
have quoted into alphabetical order by
author/editor’s surname.
List the sources in this order at the end
of your work.
Sample Reference List
Economic and Social Research Council (2007) Security and
Terrorism in the UK Available from:
http://www.independence.co.uk/issues-online (accessed
18/05/2010)
Kelly, J (2009) “Are girls better than boys” Baby Essentials in
Essential Articles 12 (2010)p.84
Kobasa, Paul A (ed.)(2008) Earthquakes (Library of Natural
disasters) Chicago: World Book
Richardson, H (14 May 2010) Universites say students may face
earlier loan payback Available from:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/10115822.stm
(accessed 14/05/2010)