Referencing
About twice a month, I get a call from one of the faculty complaining bitterly that students don't know how to reference and that the assignments that have just been handed in are dreadful. Aren't students taught how to reference when they start university? Well, yes, they are. But unfortunately, referencing is a skill that comes with practice, and one class can only teach the basics. It's a bit like someone teaching you the highway code and then expecting you to drive like Stirling Moss the first time you get behind the steering wheel of a car.
The first class on referencing provides the model, but it's up to the student to put the model into practice. On this page, we hope to give you a few more tools and some help in learning how to write citations, references and bibliographies.
FAQ (frequently asked questions)
Q. My advisor suggested I organise my bibliography by having interviews in one section, books in another, websites in another etc. Is this right?
A. No, this is not right. You should have one list, arranged alphabetically by author/interviwee (or title if no author). The person reading your report will see your in-text citation, which would be an author's name. If the reader was interested in finding the original citation, they would turn to your list of references to find the author's name and hence the full reference. However, from the author's name, the reader has no idea if the original is a book, article, interview, webpage, email, or any other of the many ways in which information or knowledge is made available. So, if you listed your references in this way, the reader would have to check every list you had, rather than one single list. It should be clear from how the reference is written, what sort of media the original is.
Here are some links to documents and pages that may help. Don't forget that there are also manuals available in the library.
Online Bibliography Builders
A good tool to start building your bibliography. You can either search the database for references that already exist, or add your own. By registering, you can build and save your own bibliographies in either MLA, APA, or Chicago format. At the moment, it's free.
Similar to BibMe above, but only MLA format is available.
From the Adapted Computer Training Center of the Palomar Community College in San Marcos, California. A simple tool for generating MLA references.
Guides on Referencing and Citation
A guide to Harvard referencing, with specific pages for journals and newspapers.
A pdf document called "References and Bibliographies" written by the University of Bradford School of Management.
A website containing all the tools you need to carry out and write up your research.
