A Friendly Guide To Effective Citing and Referencing
A Friendly Guide To Effective Citing and Referencing
A Friendly Guide To Effective Citing and Referencing
Friendly Guide to
Effective Citing and
Referencing
IB English A: Language and Literature
IB English B
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Contents
What is citation?....................................................................................................................................4
Why should I cite sources?....................................................................................................................4
What kind of sources are these?...........................................................................................................4
When do I need to cite?........................................................................................................................5
How do I cite?........................................................................................................................................5
In-Text References.................................................................................................................................5
Citing an Author or Authors...................................................................................................................7
Images, figures and tables.....................................................................................................................9
List of References................................................................................................................................11
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What is citation?
A citation is the way you tell the reader of your research that some of the ideas and concepts you
have used in your paper came from a source. This also includes pictures, graphs or any other visual
material you have not made yourself. It could also include a direct quote from an author or an
example to clarify a point you are making. It also gives your readers the information necessary to
find that source again, including:
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When do I need to cite?
Whenever you borrow words or ideas, you need to acknowledge the source. The following
situations almost always require citation:
How do I cite?
When we cite, we should make clear what it is that we are citing. It must be clear to the reader just
what it is that we owe to someone else, and whether we have quoted exactly or have used our own
words and understanding of the original material.
The reader must be able to distinguish clearly between our words/work and the words/work
of others. Quotations—the exact words as used by others—are indicated either by quotation marks
or by displaying (indenting) the quotation.
Paraphrase and summary of others’ work should similarly be distinguishable from our own
words and ideas.
In-Text References
Always capitalize proper nouns, including author names and initials: D. Jones.
If you refer to the title of a source within your paper, capitalize all words that are four letters
long or greater within the title of a source: Permanence and Change. Exceptions apply to
short words that are verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs: Writing New
Media, There Is Nothing Left to Lose.
(Note: in your References list, only the first word of a title will be capitalized: Writing new
media.)
When capitalizing titles, capitalize both words in a hyphenated compound word: Natural-
Born Cyborgs.
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Capitalize the first word after a dash or colon: "Defining Film Rhetoric: The Case of
Hitchcock's Vertigo."
Italicize the titles of longer works such as books, edited collections, movies, television series,
documentaries, or albums: The Closing of the American Mind; The Wizard of Oz; Friends.
Put quotation marks around the titles of shorter works such as journal articles, articles from
edited collections, television series episodes, and song titles: "Multimedia Narration:
Constructing Possible Worlds"; "The One Where Chandler Can't Cry."
Short quotations
If you are directly quoting from a work, you will need to include the author, year of publication, and
the page number for the reference (preceded by "p."). Introduce the quotation with a signal phrase
that includes the author's last name followed by the date of publication in parentheses.
According to Jones (1998), "Students often had difficulty using APA style,
especially when it was their first time" (p. 199).
Jones (1998) found "students often had difficulty using APA style" (p. 199); what
implications does this have for teachers?
If the author is not named in a signal phrase, place the author's last name, the year of publication,
and the page number in parentheses after the quotation.
She stated, "Students often had difficulty using APA style" (Jones, 1998, p. 199),
but she did not offer an explanation as to why.
Long quotations
Place direct quotations that are 40 words, or longer, in a free-standing block of typewritten lines,
and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, indented 1/2 inch from the left margin,
i.e., in the same place you would begin a new paragraph. Type the entire quotation on the new
margin, and indent the first line of any subsequent paragraph within the quotation 1/2 inch from the
new margin. Maintain double-spacing throughout. The parenthetical citation should come after the
closing punctuation mark.
Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their
first time citing sources. This difficulty could be attributed to the fact that
many students failed to purchase a style manual or to ask their teacher for
help. (p. 199)
Summary or paraphrase
If you are paraphrasing an idea from another work, you only have to make reference to the author
and year of publication in your in-text reference, but APA guidelines encourage you to also provide
the page number (although it is not required.)
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According to Jones (1998), APA style is a difficult citation format for first-time
learners.
APA style is a difficult citation format for first-time learners (Jones, 1998, p. 199).
2. A Work by Three to Five Authors: List all the authors in the signal phrase or in parentheses
the first time you cite the source. Use the word "and" between the authors' names within
the text and use the ampersand in the parentheses.
In subsequent citations, only use the first author's last name followed by "et al." in the signal phrase
or in parentheses.
4. Unknown Author: If the work does not have an author, cite the source by its title in the
signal phrase or use the first word or two in the parentheses. Titles of books and reports are
italicized or underlined; titles of articles, chapters, and web pages are in quotation marks.
A similar study was done of students learning to format research papers ("Using
APA," 2001).
Note: In the rare case the "Anonymous" is used for the author, treat it as the author's name
(Anonymous, 2001). In the reference list, use the name Anonymous as the author.
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5. Organization as an Author: If the author is an organization or a government agency,
mention the organization in the signal phrase or in the parenthetical citation the first time
you cite the source.
If the organization has a well-known abbreviation, include the abbreviation in brackets the first time
the source is cited and then use only the abbreviation in later citations.
6. Two or More Works in the Same Parentheses: When your parenthetical citation includes
two or more works, order them the same way they appear in the reference list (viz.,
alphabetically), separated by a semi-colon.
7. Authors With the Same Last Name: To prevent confusion, use first initials with the last
names.
8. Two or More Works by the Same Author in the Same Year: If you have two sources by the
same author in the same year, use lower-case letters (a, b, c) with the year to order the
entries in the reference list. Use the lower-case letters with the year in the in-text citation.
10. Personal Communication: For interviews, letters, e-mails, and other person-to-person
communication, cite the communicator's name, the fact that it was personal
communication, and the date of the communication. Do not include personal
communication in the reference list.
A. P. Smith also claimed that many of her students had difficulties with APA style
(personal communication, November 3, 2002).
If you use a source that was cited in another source, name the original source in your signal phrase.
List the secondary source in your reference list and include the secondary source in the parentheses.
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Johnson argued that... (as cited in Smith, 2003, p. 102).
Note: When citing material in parentheses, set off the citation with a comma, as above. Also,
try to locate the original material and cite the original source.
Electronic Sources
If possible, cite an electronic document the same as any other document by using the author-date
style.
Unknown Author and Unknown Date: If no author or date is given, use the title in your signal
phrase or the first word or two of the title in the parentheses and use the abbreviation "n.d." (for
"no date").
When an electronic source lacks page numbers, you should try to include information that will help
readers find the passage being cited. When an electronic document has numbered paragraphs, use
the abbreviation "para." followed by the paragraph number (Hall, 2001, para. 5). If the paragraphs
are not numbered and the document includes headings, provide the appropriate heading and
specify the paragraph under that heading. Note that in some electronic sources, like Web pages,
people can use the Find function in their browser to locate any passages you cite.
According to Smith (1997), ... (Mind over Matter section, para. 6).
Note: Never use the page numbers of Web pages you print out; different computers print
Web pages with different pagination.
The International Baccalaureate also requires you to reference images. In a Written Assignment
(havo) or a Written Task 1 (vwo), it is best to use a footnote and put the reference in there, as a
caption will often interfere with the lay-out and authentic look of the text type. In a Written Task 2,
you should use a caption.
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If you got the image from
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Figure 3. Fantail vector (McMillan, 2009).
Reference
McMillan, T. (2009). Fantail vector. Retrieved 25 March 2009, from
http://www.kiwiwise.co.nz/photo/fantail-vector
List of References
An alphabetical overview of all the sources you have used appears at the end of your written work,
on a new page headed by the word “References” (without quotation marks).
You have to use ‘hanging’ indentation. Below, an example is provided that includes the works from
your IB reading lists.
References
Coleridge, S. T. (1834). The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The Poetry Foundation.
Retrieved 17 January 2018, from
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43997/the-rime-of-the-ancient-
mariner-text-of-1834
Lee, H. (1988). To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: Grand Central Publishing.
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