Why and how….?
REFERENCING
Referencing
 This is very important for Task 1 and then for all other
written assignments on this course
 It will take time to get it right but you need to keep
consulting the University guidelines and keep practicing
 Referencing guidelines can be found on the module
website on Webct. Go to assessment guidelines and
then resources for task 1
 2 RLOs
 1) General introduction in ‘’What is referencing?’’
 2) Detailed guidelines on how to reference in
‘’Referencing your work using Harvard’’
Why ?
 To show that you have read,
understood and used other peoples
work in your essays / assignments
 To show that you are not plagiarising
work
 To allow the reader to follow up your
sources of information
How? – Harvard System
 2 aspects to correct referencing
 1) how to cite the references in the
text of your essay
 2) how to construct a reference list
at the end of your essay
Citing references in the text of your essay
 Smith (2005) has found that nursing
students really enjoy writing essays
 Research has shown that students
really like writing essays (Smith 2005)
 In the above examples I have used
Smith’s ideas and put these into my
own words
Citing in the text of your essay
– direct quotations
 Smith (2005 p25) states ‘’Students liked
many aspects of their course but especially
enjoyed writing essays’’
 ‘’Students liked many aspects of their course
but especially enjoyed writing essays’’ (Smith
2005 p25)
 In the above examples I have lifted the words
from Smith’s text and put them straight into
my essay
Direct Quotations
 Use them infrequently
 A direct quotation shows that you can copy
phrases / sentences from other sources and
then put them straight into your work
 A direct quotation does not really show that
you understand the ideas
 Instead – it is best to put author’s ideas into
your own words and then cite the author in
your text as the source of these ideas
Citing in the text of your
essay
 Use surname only – not first name or initials
 Always include the year of publication
 If the work has two authors – include both in your text
(and both in the reference list)
 If the work has 3 authors you must cite all three the
first time you use it eg Smith, Brown and Green (2005)
but then you can use Smith et. al. (2005) any other
times you use it
 you must write all authors in the reference list
Citing in the text of your
essay
 If the work has more than three authors, the
first time you cite it in your essay you can list
the first three authors and then et. al. eg
Brown, Smith, Jones et. al. (2008).
 The next time you cite it you can use Brown
et.al. (2008)
Reference list at the end of
your essay
 References are listed by authors - in
alphabetical order (not numbered)
 Include all authors’ surnames and
initials (even if there are 12 authors!)
 Highlight, underline or put in italics the
title of the book or the title of the
journal
Reference list
 Text book
 Smith, P. (2005) Students on
Nursing Courses. London: Jones
Press
Reference list
 Journal
 Smith, P. (2005) Students’
experiences on the diploma in
nursing. Nurse Education Today.
85(5): 25-30
Secondary referencing
 When you have read a book or article
and the author makes reference to
someone else’s work.
 If you are reading Smiths work and he
cites work by Jones.
 You want to use Jones’ ideas in your
essay
Secondary referencing
 In your essay you would need to cite
Jones even though you have not read
Jones’s actual work
 For example - Jones (2003 cited in
Smith 2008) found that not all nurses
like writing essays
Secondary referencing
 Then in your reference list you only need to reference
the source you have read – in this case Smith (2008)
 Try to avoid secondary referencing if you can. Always
go to the original work (Jones in this case) and read
that if available.
 Many secondary references in your essay gives an
initial impression to the reader that you have read a lot
of material – but you may have taken them all from
one source only
Referencing
 Some other aspects of referencing you need
to check
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Multiple works by the same author
Book editions
Books with editors
Electronic journals
Internet sources
Reports
Newspapers
Local documents