Technical requirements for quotations and referencing
Contents (please add list of contents for easy reference for students)
Page
Introduction
Direct quotations
References in the text
List of sources
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Sources in general
Later editions of a book
Translated works
Institutional authorship
Works universally known by their titles: dictionaries and encyclopaedias
A journal article or article in a newspaper or magazine
An article in an anthology or collective works
Two publications in the same year
Dissertations or theses
Unpublished conference papers
UNISA study guides
Internet articles
Unknown date or place of publication
Introduction
When writing an assignment or Masters dissertation, you may want to quote from a book or an
article to substantiate your arguments. Your credibility as a researcher depends on how thoroughly
you acknowledge the ideas and thoughts of other authors.
References are used to:



acknowledge the original author(s) whose ideas you are using
substantiate arguments and statements
enable your reader to consult the sources referred to, and/or to check your information
This document contains the basic types of references that you may need in academic writing. You
will note that this information also appears in your Tutorial letter SB80P19/101/3/2006. You may
also consult the following sources in this regard:
Add additional sources if needed
Direct quotations
When you use an author's exact words, they should be placed between quotation marks. Keep the
use of quotations to a minimum. A string of quotations suggests that you could not interpret or
properly understand the text. When quoting please note the following points:
Place the quotation in inverted commas (" ") and acknowledge the source.
Retain the exact spelling and punctuation of the original.
If you omit words from a quotation, show this by a series of three full stops ( . . . ).
If you add words to a quotation, place them in square brackets ([ ]).
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If you wish to emphasise part of a quotation, italicize or underline it and add the phrase
"my emphasis" in brackets at the end of the reference.
The following example illustrates the aspects mentioned above:
Berger (1987:27-28) emphasises that we must not see the individual as being
merely a passive internaliser of meanings which exist outside that individual. As
Berger puts it "the individual is not moulded as a passive or inert thing. Rather he
[or she] is formed in the course of a protracted conversation . . . in which he [or
she] is a participant" (my emphasis). (Van der Merwe et al 1990:211).
References in the text
You must insert references when you use direct quotations from a text and when you use other
information or ideas from sources (even if you paraphrase or put it in your own words).
You must identify the source of the material by giving in brackets:
the author's surname (unless it already appears in the sentence or paragraph),
the year of publication, colon [:],
the page or pages referred to (unless the entire publication is to be indicated).
For example
Where the author's name appears in the sentence:
While it has been shown by Sandbrook (1982:132) that . . .
Where the author's name does not appear in the sentence:
We find it stated . . . (Gouldner 1980:85).
Where you refer to the entire work, you give no page numbers:
Some, such as Parsons (1966), go further than earlier authors (MacIver & Page 1949;
Gillin & Gillin 1942) . . .
Where there are two authors, both surnames are given, joined by an ampersand:
We may refer to a more recent source (Giliomee & Adam 1981:61-64) . . .
Where there are three or more authors or editors, the surname of the first is given followed by "et
al" (which means "and others"):
... (Alant et al 1981:125) . . .
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NB: It is not acceptable to use et al in the list of sources. You must list all
authors. In the text, you can use et al, but under the following
circumstances: Name all the authors in the first text reference in the
document:
Gouws, Kruger and Burger (2000:53) discuss these factors . . .
Use the name of the first author followed by et al (not italicised) in
subsequent references:
Gouws et al (2000:53) discuss this in detail . . . .
Because “et al” means “and others”, we use the plural verb
For institutional authorship, you supply minimum identification:
... (SA Institute of Race Relations 1998:3-18) . . . or, for governmental reports . . . (South
Africa, Dept. of Social Development 1998:4-6) . . .
Where an author is responsible for more than one publication in the same year, they are
distinguished by using a, b, et cetera, after the year of publication:
We learn that Davis (1963a:331) . . .
A series of references should be separated by semicolons:
... (Johnson 1961:32; Inkeles 1964:12; Cilliers 1965:103) . . .
When you refer to several different pages in a source, they are separated by a comma:
… (Johnson 1961:32-35, 70, 90).
If you have not consulted a book yourself, you should refer to it thus:
Giddens (1979: 126), citing Bettelheim, indicates . . .
OR
Bettelheim has said (quoted in Giddens 1979: 126) ... .
Here Giddens and not Bettelheim would appear in your source list. NB Don’t be tempted to cite
sources you have not personally consulted. Examiners have a sixth sense about such
things and it invalidates your claims of independent, original work.
When you refer to encyclopaedias or dictionaries, you follow these examples:
(EB 1964, sv optics) __Here, EB refers to Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Or
... (Collins 2003, sv custom) Here Collins refers to the Collins dictionary.
Note: sv is an abbreviation of the Latin expression sub verbo, which means under the word.
When the date or place of publication is unknown, follow these guidelines:
If the date of publication is unknown, an abbreviation of the Latin expression sine anno (without a
year) is used in square brackets. If the place of publication is unknown, an abbreviation of the Latin
expression sine loco (without place) is used in square brackets, for example:
According to Jones ([sa]: 14) there are . . .
... in that regard (Jones [sa]: 10).....
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Note: In the list of sources, the S of both sine anno and sine loco is capitalised because it
introduces a new element of the entry. In the text reference, however, the s is written with a small
letter.
List of sources
In the list of works at the end of the paper, each publication consulted and referred to in the text (as
above) must be identified fully. (We prefer not to use the term "bibliography" here as it is strictly
speaking a list of all known publications on a specific subject.)
All publications are arranged alphabetically according to the author's names. If you have consulted
more than one publication by the same author, these are arranged chronologically according to the
date of publication.
Sources in general
Note that all the details of a source are given in the language of the source itself. If you were to
use a German book, for instance, its place of publication might be München, not Munich.
List all sources as follows:
The author's surname, comma (,), and initial(s) (indicate an editor by (ed) following the
initials), followed by a full stop (.)(No full stops between initials)
The date of publication, full stop(.)
The title of the book, full stop (.) (Only the first letter of the title should be capitalised and
the title should be underlined or italicised)
The place (city or town) of publication - not the place of printing - followed by a colon (:)
The name of the publishers, followed by a full stop (.) (Omit words like "Publishers",
"Limited", and “Company")
NB: No page numbers are given in the case of books in the list of sources EXCEPT when
listing a separate chapter in an edited book or anthology.
Examples
Giddens. A. 1997. Central problems in social theory. London: Macmillan.
Maylee, W M. 1998. Principles of general psychology. 4th edition. London: Longman.
Thouless, R. 1974. Straight and crooked thinking. London: Pan.
Books with more than one author or editor
In cases where there is more than one author, the surnames and initials of all the authors must be
indicated in the list of sources.
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Examples:
Dekker, E & Van Schalkwyk, O J (eds). 1989. Modern education systems. Durban: Butterworths.
Gouws, E, Kruger, N & Burger, S. 2000. The adolescent. 2nd edition. Sandown: Heinemann.
Keat, R & Urry, J. 1982. Social theory as science. 2nd edition. London: Routledge & Kegan
Paul.
Pretorius, J G du P & Eksteen, L C. 1981. Sociology. Johannesburg: Perskor.
Quirk, R & Greenbaum, S. 1973. A university grammar of English. London: Longman.
Later editions of a book
If you consulted a second or later edition of a book, you must provide the date of the edition you
used and indicate which edition it is after the title in your list of sources. See the previous example.
Translated works
Follow this example:
Eco, U. 2000. Belief or nonbelief? Translated from the Italian by M Proctor. New York: Good
Books. (Original work published in 1999.)
NB In the text reference, use the year of the translation, eg. Eco (2000:13) . . .
Institutional authorship
In the example for references in the text (see the previous section), you saw an institutional listing
(SA Institute of Race Relations 1998:3-18) and for governmental reports (South Africa, Dept. of
Social Development 1998:4-6). In your list of sources, you list this source alphabetically as follows:
British Museum. 1975. Visitor's guide. London.
South Africa (Republic). Department of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Tourism Western Cape.
2000. White paper on sustainable tourism development and promotion in the Western
Cape. Cape Town: Business Promotion & Tourism.
South Africa (Republic). Department of Education.2002. Revised national curriculum statement
grades R-9 (Schools): life orientation. Pretoria: Government Printer.
South Africa (Republic). Department of Social Development. 1998. Population policy for South
Africa. Pretoria: Department of Social Development.
South African Institute of Race Relations. 1998. South African Survey 1997/1998. Johannesburg:
SAIRR.
Works universally known by their titles: dictionaries and encyclopaedias
Certain reference works are universally known by their titles and it makes things considerably
easier for the reader if these works are listed under their titles.
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Examples:
Collins English dictionary. 2003. 6th edition. Sv "custom". Glasgow: HarperCollins.
Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1964. Sv optics. London: Benton.
Note: sv is an abbreviation of the Latin expression sub verbo, which means under the word.
A journal article or article in a newspaper or magazine
When a journal article is referred to, its title is followed by a full stop. This is followed by the title of
the journal (underlined or italicized) and the volume number, the edition number in single brackets (
), followed by a colon, the page numbers on which the article appears and a full stop.
Examples
Dennick, E O. 1999. The role of the individual in mass education. Progressio 15(2): 86-93.
Herold, K. 2004. Information and its philosophy. Library Trends 52(3), Winter: 74-84.
Johnson, P. 2001. Water resources: planning for the future. National Geographer 14(5), May: 175184.
Mchunu, N. 2003. Minister launches school health policy. Pretoria News, 23 July: 4.
Webster, E. 1985. Competing paradigms: toward a critical sociology in Southern Africa. Social
Dynamics 11(2): 44-48.
When the author of the article is unknown,
magazine/newspaper/publication, for example:
follow
the
convention
of
listing
the
Curationis 2(2), 1995.
Fair Lady, 10 February 2004.
An article in an anthology or collective works
If you referred to a specific article in an anthology (or collective work), or a chapter in an edited
book, you should provide the required information in this way: author's name, date, the title of the
article/chapter followed by a comma and the word "in", the title of the anthology (underlined or
italicized), a comma, the words "edited by" and the editor's name, a comma (,), place of
publication, colon (:), publisher, a colon (:) and in single brackets the page numbers on which the
article/chapter appears, full stop (.). (Please note that the initial(s) of the editor appears/appear
before the surname in this case.)
Example
Gibbs, JP. 1981. The sociology of deviance and social control, in Social psychology: sociological
perspectives, edited by M Rosenberg. New York: Basic Books: 17-63.
Pretorius, SG. 1989. The education system of Japan, in Modern education systems, edited by E
Dekker & OJ van Schalkwyk. Durban: Butterworths: 243-284.
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Two publications in the same year
If you wish to refer to two publications by the same author, which were both published in the same
year, distinguish between them by the addition of a and b after the year of publication.
Example
Giddens, A. 1982a. Class structure and class consciousness, in Classes, power and conflict:
classical and contemporary debates, edited by A Giddens & D Held. London: Macmillan.
(17-52).
Giddens, A. 1982b. Profiles and critiques in social theory. London: Macmillan.
Dissertations or theses
Here, follow the conventions of listings for books, but also list the degree and the university. Note
that the title of the dissertation or theses is not in Italics or underlined.
Examples:
Maguire, J. 1976. A taxonomic and ecological study of the living and fossil Hystricidae with
particular reference to Southern Africa. PhD thesis, University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg.
Van der Westhuizen, P D. 1974. A description of aspects of poverty. MA-dissertation, University of
Pretoria.
Unpublished conference papers
These are listed by the name of the author of the paper. The name of the paper is not underlined
or italicised. The official name of the conference is used and all the main words (describing the
conference) are capitalised.
Examples:
Motata, E. 1978. The Benedictine ethic and the spirit of scheduling. Paper presented at the annual
meeting of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations, Milwaukee,
April.
Smit, A. 1980. Women and HIV/AIDS. Paper presented at a congress organised by AIDSCAP, 4-6
Mei, University of Stellenbosch.
UNISA study guides
When the author of the study guide is known, list it by author, for example:
Gouws, FE. 2002. Guidance, counselling and life skills= development: Only Study Guide for
ETH203-Q (Educational themes: intermediate and senior phases). Pretoria: University of
South Africa.
When the author of the study guide is unknown, list it under UNISA as follows:
UNISA, vide University of South Africa.
University of South Africa. Department of Nursing Science. 1985. Nursing administration: Study
Guide 1 for NUA201-Q. Revised edition. Pretoria.
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Internet articles
The same guidelines as above apply. List the author(s) alphabetically with the rest of the sources.
The title of the article is followed by the words Available at: and the World Wide Web address is
given. This is followed by the phrase accessed on and the date on which you accessed that article
in single brackets.
Examples
Hall, D. 2001. The sociology of risk and social demographic change. Available at:
www.ssc.uwo.sociology/popstudies/dp (accessed on 03/03/2003).
Weddington,G, Mogotlane,S & Tshule,M. 2002. Challenge in South Africa: creating a speech and
hearing
program
at
a
historically
black
university.
Available
at:
www.professional.asha.org/news (accessed on 23/7/2003).
When the author of the Internet article is unknown, you can list the World Wide Web address along
with the rest of your sources, for example:
www.professional.asha.org/news (accessed on 23/07/03).
In your text reference, you will then say:”... as mentioned before (www.professional.asha.org/news)
“. . .
Please note that it is important to give the date on which the information was accessed in the
bibliographical entry because the source may not be available after a time.
Unknown date or place of publication
For the sake of convenience the following examples are given in this section on books, but the
principles apply to any source where the date or place of publication or the copyright date is
lacking. If the date of publication is unknown, an abbreviation of the Latin expression sine anno
(without a year) is used in square brackets. If the place of publication is unknown, an abbreviation
of the Latin expression sine loco (without place) is used in square brackets.
Examples:
Jones, DA. [Sa]. South Africa and its peoples. Johannesburg: Southern.
Smit, WP. 1950. Cape gourmets. [Sl]: Gourmets Guild.
Note: In the list of sources, the S of both sine anno and sine loco is capitalised because it
introduces a new element of the entry. In the text reference, however, the s is written with a small
letter.
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