Writing-References-2021-22 2
Writing-References-2021-22 2
Writing-References-2021-22 2
Introduction
The quality of all your written work is dependent on you accessing/retrieving relevant literature
to support your statements. The more research you do, the better the references you will find,
which will enable you to apply the academic processes of defining, comparing, contrasting,
examining and critically evaluating a topic area.
When referencing try to put across the writings of authors in your own words and ensure that
you acknowledge the author(s) you have used to aid you in your writing.
Quoting directly should only be used when you cannot find any better way of phrasing what the
author(s) have written in your own words. You should not allow quoted text to dominate your
essays (a proportion of 10 to 15 per cent should be the maximum).
The use of footnotes is appropriate only for explaining technical terms and abbreviations and
not to identify the sources of quoted material.
You need to be consistent when writing references and bibliographies. Pay particular attention
to punctuation, where round brackets begin and end and where full stops occur within the text
and within the reference list.
There are many referencing systems - this is the only one acceptable for use by
students at Farnborough College.
Except for BSc (Hons) Psychology and Criminology students who are required to follow
American Psychological Association referencing guidelines for their Psychology assignments and
FCOT Harvard guidelines for their Criminology assignments.
Referencing Software
For support with referencing, a hyperlink to the free online tool:
www.citethisforme.com
This is a great site to get a starting point for your reference, however you will always want
to check it and make amendment where necessary.
Definitions
The following pages include useful definitions:
Plagiarism is the practice of taking another writer’s work and passing it off as your own - a
serious academic offence. Direct quotations, information (text, images or diagrams), ideas and
theories, as well as facts and figures taken from another person's work should be clearly and
precisely acknowledged and referenced throughout your work in order to avoid plagiarism.
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authenticate their source while minimising repetition of lengthy book titles, or internet URLs.
These instructions are based on The Harvard referencing system which focuses on printed
resources.
References (sometimes called ‘Citations’) in the text should be backed-up with a full reference
in the reference list or bibliography.
A reference list only includes books, articles etc. that are referred to in the text. A list that
consists of all sources used during preparatory research including those that are not referred to
in the text is called a bibliography and should only be compiled if requested by your lecturer.
When referencing within your text, use only the name of the author(s), followed by the year of
publication. If the name does not occur naturally in the sentence, both name and year are given
in round brackets. If the author’s name occurs naturally in the sentence only the year is given
in round brackets.
Single author
Single authors can be cited at the end of a sentence like this one (Cottrell, 2014). Or you might
use the author’s name at the start of your sentence. Cottrell (2014) suggested that… You can
use a reference within a sentence (Cottrell, 2014) to demonstrate the point of the sentence
related to the author’s work.
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Secondary Sources
If you are unable to find an original source referred to in a book/article you have been using
and you want to mention it, reference it in text and follow it with cited in and then the article
you used e.g. (Hill, 1927, cited in Wilmore and Costill, 2013).
Details of the publication by Wilmore and Costill will be cited in the final list of references but as
you have not seen the Hill article this would not be listed.
Images
Figures = photographs, diagrams, graphs, maps
Tables = text/numbers arranged in columns or rows
Photographs e.g.
Figure 1: Jude Law by David Bailey (Malone, 2012, p.23)
Acts of Parliament
Refer to the act in full e.g.
The Race Relations Act 1968 made it illegal to refuse housing…
Quoting directly
Page numbers should be included in all in-text citations when quoting (verbatim) directly from
the source. “Heat stroke is caused by a failure of the body’s thermoregulatory mechanisms”
(Wilmore and Costill, 2013, p.323).
In some cases, it is not possible to provide a page number e.g., when accessing information
from the Internet.
e.g.
“It’s essential you learn how to reference” (Dawson et al. 2012).
Longer direct quotes should be indented without quotation marks and referenced in the same
way e.g.
The popular image of the Victorian agricultural labourer as never moving beyond the parish
bounds could not be further from the truth. A glance at the censuses show that a carter on
Exmoor in 1871 might be an ironworker in South Wales in 1881, a gas furnace worker in
Scunthorpe in 1891 and back in the Welsh coalfields by 1901. A Norfolk gardener in Thetford
in 1861 might be a nightwatchman in Marylebone by 1901 (Doswell, 2008, p.124).
In many cases official websites have no title on the page, no discernible author, and no
obvious date of publication. In this instance reference the company and identify you do not
know when it was published (British Heart Foundation, no date), if you know the date replace
the no date with the year of publication.
Unpublished work
Use the same format as you would for a book when referring to unpublished work within your
text.
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e-Readers
If an online book doesn't have page numbers, you need to direct the reader to where the
reference is to be found i.e., the chapter and paragraph.
e.g., One of the author’s main points is that “people don’t rise from nothing” (Brown, 2012,
Chapter 1, Section 2, paragraph 5).
Multimedia
If you reference multimedia, use the author’s or director’s surname and year of release within
Britain.
Computer Coding
(Author, Year published, page)
For coding in a book: … (Bradbury and Everard, 2014, p.21)
For coding on a website: … (Perl.org, 2016)
For books highlight the title, using italics or underlining; with journals highlight the name of
the journal, not the title of the article.
Use the date of the edition you are using, not the original date of publication.
As far as possible, take the information from the title page of the publication.
Books
Author Surname, INITIALS. (Year) Title. (in italics if printed, underlined if handwritten) Edition
(if not the first) Place of publication: Publisher.
e.g.
Leale, A.F. (2012) Economics today. 2nd edn. London: Heathcote Press.
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Nursing Midwifery Council (2011) The NMC code of professional conduct. London: Nursing
Midwifery Council.
If a book has been edited by up to three people, insert ed. or eds. after their names.
Chapter or paper in a book
The title of the chapter is in ordinary type and is in single quotation marks; the title of the book
is in italics (or underlined if handwritten) the description in is used and the page numbers are
added:
Bushen, D. (2012) ‘The power of the blog’, in Davies, G. and Pitt, S. (eds.) New media and
communications. London: Goodridge, pp. 47-58.
Abstracts
Make it clear only an abstract was consulted if you are going to use one.
Theses
Author Surname, INITIALS. (Year) Title (in italics). Type of qualification Institution.
Newspaper articles
Author’s Surname, INITIALS. (Year) ‘Article title’. Newspaper title (in italics), day month, page
number(s).
e.g.
Richards, H. (2011) ‘Republican elite?’ The Times Higher Education Supplement, 1 November p.
16.
Internet source
Author/editor Surname, INITIALS. (Year) Title. (in italics) Place of publication: Publisher.
Available at: URL (Accessed date)
Richardson, A. (2012) Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and ADHD: can nutrition help?. Available at:
http://www.dyslexic.org.uk/nutritionarticle.html (Accessed: 11 December 2017)
e-Books
Author’s Surname, INITIALS. (Year) Title (in italics). Place of publication: Publisher. Available
at: URL (Accessed: date)
e.g.
Felleman, S. (2012) Art in the cinematic imagination. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Available at: http://site.ebrary.com/lib/farnct/docDetail.action?docID=10190667
(Accessed: 20 October 2017)
e-Readers
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Author Surname, INITIAL. (Year of publication). Title of book. [e-reader version] Available at:
URL. (Accessed: date)
e.g.
Brown, M. (2012) How to succeed in business. [Kindle DX version] Available at: Amazon.com
(Accessed: 15 November 2013)
Brown, M. (2012) How to succeed in business. [Adobe Digital Editions version]
doi:10.1036/007142363X (Accessed:15 November 2016)
(The Digital Object Identifier is a unique number that is assigned to books and articles on the
internet. It is used to locate items on the world wide web)
Acts of Parliament/Statutes
Country. Title Year. Chapter. Publication Place: Publisher
Great Britain. Race Relations Act 1968. Chapter 22. (1968) London: HMSO.
If you need to refer to a specific part of the act, put the part and section.
Great Britain. Race Relations Act 1968. Chapter 22 pt.1. s.2. (1968) London: HMSO.
Audiovisual material
There is not an accepted standard for referencing TV and radio broadcasts, films, videos etc.
but you should try to follow a style consistent to that used for printed materials.
The information you include will depend upon the type of resource you have used e.g.
Title. Episode title and number if appropriate (In italics). (Year) Broadcasting
company/channel/station Type of media, Date of broadcast.
Simon Schama’s Power of Art. Part 5 Turner. (2008) BBC2 Television, 17 November.
If you refer to an individual contribution within a program e.g., an interview, you should name
the individual:
Reid, J. (2006) Interview In Channel 4 News. Channel 4 Television, 11 December.
YouTube
YouTube creator (Year) Title. Available at: URL (Accessed: date)
e.g.
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Tesco Food and Wine (2013) Love every mouthful. Available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_1G6OlFIJQ (Accessed: 20 August 2016)
Online Images
Artist/Originator (Year of Production) Name of Image [online image] Available at: URL
(Accessed: day month year)
e.g.
Nasa/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio (2000) Earth’s Ocean Floor
from Space [online image] Available at: http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=12758
(Accessed: 1 December 2015)
Images in books
Author Surname, INITIAL. (Year of publication) Title of book. Publisher, page number.
e.g.
Malone, C. (2012) Portraits. London: Willow Press, p.23.
Images in journals
Author Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) ‘Title of article’, Title of journal, Day Month
(Volume), page number.
e.g.
Smith, F. (2014) ‘Modern aircraft’, Flight International, 24 July (224), p.7.
Images in an exhibition
Author Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) Name of image [type of image] Name of
exhibition. Location: Gallery, Date of exhibition.
e.g.
Beaton, C. (1956) Marilyn Monroe. [photograph] Cecil Beaton Portraits exhibition. London:
Wolfson Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, 5 February – 31 May 2004.
Personal communications
If there is a transcript of a personal communication, then it can be included in your reference
list. You should include:
Interviewee’s name. Year of interview. Title of Interview. Interviewed by... [type of
medium/format] Location and date of interview.
e.g.
Borden, C. (2013) Discussion on types of fitness training [letter] Personal communication.
(Accessed: 18 August 2014)
Sender’s Surname, Initials. (Sender’s email address) Day Month Year Subject of Message (in
italics) e-mail to Recipient’s Initials. Surname, (recipients email address)
e.g.
Harris, T. ([email protected]) 11 Dec 2012 RE: Nineteenth century migration to South
Wales e-mail to J. Baker, ([email protected])
Computer coding
Author or Website. (Year of publication) Title of publication. Location: Publisher.
e.g.
Bradbury, A. and Everard, B. (2014) Learning Python with Raspberry Pi. Chichester: Wiley
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