MBA 7020 Research and Study Skills

Harvard Referencing Guide

Citations and Referencing in

Academic work

What is Referencing?
Referencing is an important part of academic writing.
It is a way of referring to the work of others to provide
evidence and support for what you are saying.
It shows that your work has been researched and that
your ideas have a sound base. By referring to reputable
evidence and respected authors you add weight to your
argument and show that you are knowledgeable in a
particular field.
CITATION: Bilton, Bonnet and
Jones (1987) argue that increased
rates of divorce do not necessarily
indicate that families are now more
unstable.

REFERENCES: Bilton, T., K.

Bonnett and P. Jones
(1987). Introductory Sociology,
2nd edition. London: MacMillan.

Why reference?
Following the conventions of a referencing style is important
to comply with international copyright laws and to avoid
plagiarism.
All sources used must be cited in the text and a full list of
sources cited must be included in the reference list at the
end of the work.
This needs to be done so that the reader can find the source
and read it for himself or herself, if they so wish.
Therefore, accuracy and consistency are very important when
you are referencing.
CITATION: Bilton, Bonnet and Jones
(1987) argue that increased rates of
divorce do not necessarily indicate that
families are now more unstable.
REFERENCES: Bilton, T., K. Bonnett
and P. Jones (1987). Introductory
Sociology, 2nd edition. London:
MacMillan.

Academic Style
Academic writing should be objective. You are trying to write
about general truths or theories. Personal emotion should not be
evident.
It is important to that your views are expressed in a considered
and impersonal way: e.g. use the passive tense except when
authors are directly referred to.
Additionally Dont use slang and abbreviations (dont, isnt etc).
Do not use
I will try to
I will argue that

Use
This essay will attempt to

It will be argued that

Russells theory is considered to
I think that Russells theory is.
be
You should accepted that
It is generally accepted that

Different forms of referencing?

When you use other
peoples
ideas
or
opinions to support your
points you can either
use a direct citation or
an indirect citation.

Intext citation
Direct Citation

means that you use the exact

words from the text and place
them in quotation marks There
are not enough examples in this
essay, (Brown, 1998: 4). Note that
the name of the author, the date of
publication and the page number
are placed after the quotation and
are in parentheses. In some cases
the authors name can be placed in
the text, but the date and page
number are always in parentheses.

In direct Citation
means that you use the idea or the
opinion of the author but you write it in
your own words as a paraphrase or a
summary Brown felt that a particular
piece of writing was lacking in
examples
(1998:4).
Note
that
quotation marks are not used, but the
author (not in parentheses in this
instance), date and page number are
still given.

Task - Direct Citation

Wanting to be more productive I want to be more productive so I can
accomplish more and get an edge. I want to be able to complete all that I
have to do at work and still have time for a personal life.
Author John Abraham
Article Title Time Management Techniques
Year of Publication 2010
Page No. 6

If you had to do an direct in-text citation,

how would write it?

Task - Direct Citation

Wanting to be more productive I want to be more productive so I can
accomplish more and get an edge. I want to be able to complete all that I
have to do at work and still have time for a personal life.
Author John Abraham
Article Title Time Management Techniques
Year of Publication 2010
Page No. 6

If you were to begin the sentence with the

authors name, how would write it?

Task - Direct Citation

Wanting to be more productive I want to be more productive so I can
accomplish more and get an edge. I want to be able to complete all that I
have to do at work and still have time for a personal life.
Author John Abraham
Article Title Time Management Techniques
Year of Publication 2010
Page No. 6

If you were to end the sentence with the

authors name, how would write it?

Task - Indirect Citation

Wanting to be more productive I want to be more productive so I can
accomplish more and get an edge. I want to be able to complete all that I
have to do at work and still have time for a personal life.
Author John Abraham
Article Title Time Management Techniques
Year of Publication 2010
Page No. 6

If you had to do an indirect in-text

citation, how would write it?

Task - Indirect Citation

Wanting to be more productive I want to be more productive so I can
accomplish more and get an edge. I want to be able to complete all that I
have to do at work and still have time for a personal life.
Author John Abraham
Article Title Time Management Techniques
Year of Publication 2010
Page No. 6

If you were to begin the sentence with the

authors name, how would write it?

Task - Indirect Citation

Wanting to be more productive I want to be more productive so I can
accomplish more and get an edge. I want to be able to complete all that I
have to do at work and still have time for a personal life.
Author John Abraham
Article Title Time Management Techniques
Year of Publication 2010
Page No. 6

If you were to end the sentence with the

authors name, how would write it?

Task - Direct/Indirect Citation more than

one author
Wanting to be more productive I want to be more productive so I can
accomplish more and get an edge. I want to be able to complete all that I
have to do at work and still have time for a personal life.
Author John Abraham, George Mathew, Samuel Jon
Article Title Time Management Techniques
Year of Publication 2010
Page No. 6

If you had to do a direct and indirect intext citation, how would write it?
If you were to begin / or end the sentence with
the authors name, how would write it?

Task - Direct/Indirect Citation Secondary

Citation
Wanting to be more productive I want to be more productive so I can
accomplish more and get an edge. I want to be able to complete all that I
have to do at work and still have time for a personal life.
Main Author John Abraham
Authors contributed in the main article Paul Gregory
Article Title Time Management Techniques
Year of Publication 2010
Page No. 6

If you had to do a direct and indirect intext citation, how would write it?
If you were to begin / or end the sentence with
the authors name, how would write it?

Task - Direct/Indirect Citation No Author

Wanting to be more productive I want to be more productive so I can

accomplish more and get an edge. I want to be able to complete all that I
have to do at work and still have time for a personal life.
Main Author No author
Article Title Time Management Techniques
Year of Publication 2010
Page No. 6

If you had to do a direct and indirect intext citation, how would write it?
If you were to begin / or end the sentence with
the authors name, how would write it?

Task - Direct/Indirect Citation No date

Wanting to be more productive I want to be more productive so I can
accomplish more and get an edge. I want to be able to complete all that I
have to do at work and still have time for a personal life.
Main Author No author
Article Title Time Management Techniques
Year of Publication no date
Page No. 6

If you had to do a direct and indirect intext citation, how would write it?
If you were to begin / or end the sentence with
the authors name, how would write it?

Citations and referencing in Academic

writing
Introduction to in-text citations
Quotations are used to support the ideas you present in your writing.
You do this to give your ideas or arguments authority
There are two types of quotations: indirect and direct.
Remember, when you use direct and indirect quotations from source
materials in your writing, your aim should be to use this information to
expand or extend upon your thesis point NOT to play the dominant role
in the writing. Thus, you should not be presenting these words or ideas
instead of establishing an argument, they must be incorporated into
your argument.
CITATION: Bilton, Bonnet and Jones
(1987) argue that increased rates of
divorce do not necessarily indicate that
families are now more unstable.
REFERENCES: Bilton, T., K. Bonnett
and P. Jones (1987). Introductory
Sociology, 2nd edition. London:
MacMillan.

Citations and referencing in Academic

writing
Direct quotations
A direct quotation is one in which you copy an author's words directly from the
text and use that exact wording in your essay.
Try to use direct quotations sparingly: only use them when they are focused
precisely on the point you want to make and are both brief and telling, or
where the substance/ wording of the quote is what you wish to address.

CITATION: Bilton, Bonnet and Jones

(1987) argue that increased rates of
divorce do not necessarily indicate that
families are now more unstable.

REFERENCES: Bilton, T., K. Bonnett

and P. Jones (1987). Introductory
Sociology, 2nd edition. London:

MacMillan

Citations and referencing in Academic

writing

In Text Referencing
1) Direct quotations:
Short quotation:
as suggested by Bloggs (1999) the buck stops here.
Long quotation:
separate tabbed in and in single line spacing eg:
lots of text not usually more than 3-4 lines Bloggs
et al (1999:p54)
Direct Quotations: Use sparingly!
Remember: Where more than 2 authors use et al and cite all
authors in reference list/bibliography

CITATION: Bilton, Bonnet and Jones

(1987) argue that increased rates of
divorce do not necessarily indicate that
families are now more unstable.

REFERENCES: Bilton, T., K. Bonnett

and P. Jones (1987). Introductory
Sociology, 2nd edition. London:

MacMillan

Citations and referencing in Academic

writing
Indirect Quotations
An indirect quote is where you present an author's ideas in your own words. This can
be done either through paraphrasing or summarising. When integrating an indirect
quote into your essay, remember the following points: reference the sentence. Even
though it has been written in your own words, it is still someone else's idea.
Try to use indirect quotations more than direct quotations, as this will indicate to the
reader that you have clearly understood the information and have been able to integrate
it smoothly into your argument.

Remember to reference your paraphrasing as it is still someone

else's idea you are using.
Beware of close paraphrasing where you only change a couple of
words and leave the rest in its original form, as you may risk being
accused of plagiarism.

CITATION: Bilton, Bonnet and Jones

(1987) argue that increased rates of
divorce do not necessarily indicate that
families are now more unstable.

REFERENCES: Bilton, T., K. Bonnett

and P. Jones (1987). Introductory
Sociology, 2nd edition. London:

MacMillan

Citations and referencing in Academic

writing

Indirect Quotations/ Paraphrasing

A power culture according to Handy (1988) can
be viewed as a spiders web.
Author/Organisation and year (in brackets) in
report/essay with full information in reference list
bibliography.
CITATION: Bilton, Bonnet and Jones
(1987) argue that increased rates of
divorce do not necessarily indicate that
families are now more unstable.

REFERENCES: Bilton, T., K. Bonnett

and P. Jones (1987). Introductory
Sociology, 2nd edition. London:

MacMillan

Citations and referencing in Academic

writing
Indirect Quotations
An indirect quote is where you present an author's ideas in your own words. This can be
done either through paraphrasing or summarising.

When integrating an indirect quote into your essay, remember the following points:
Reference the sentence. Even though it has been written in your own words, it is still
someone else's idea.
Try to use indirect quotations more than direct quotations, as this will indicate to the
reader that you have clearly understood the information and have been able to integrate
it smoothly into your argument.
Remember to reference your paraphrasing as it is still someone else's idea you are
using.
Beware of close paraphrasing where you only change a couple of words and leave the
rest in its original form, as you may risk being accused of plagiarism.

Citations and referencing in Academic

writing
Example of good paraphrasing
Original Text
... the climate in most groups and
organisations does not encourage
open expression of feelings. The
necessity
of
hiding
feelings,
Organisational
Development
practitioners believe, has a negative
effect not only on group members
willingness and ability to solve
problems constructively, but also on
job satisfaction and performance.
From: Stoner, J. A. F. & Wankel, C.
(1986)
Management. (3rd Edition), New
Jersey: Prentice Hall

Paraphrase
The emotional suppression
encouraged
by the workplace negatively affects
the
employees problem solving ability,
motivation, enjoyment and
productivity
at work (Stoner and Wankel, 1986)

Citations and referencing in Academic

writing
Summarizing
A summary is also an indirect quotation, but is much shorter than the original text.
Basically, a summary encapsulates the essence or main point of what the original author
is arguing.
How do you summarise?

Skim the text and gain the general impression of the information, its content and its
relevance to your work; underline/ highlight the main points as you read.
Re-read the text, making notes of the main points.
Cover the text and rewrite your notes in your own words.
Begin your summary. Restate the main idea at the beginning of your summary,
indicating where your information is from.
Mention other major points.
Change the order of the points if necessary to make the construction more logical.
Re-read the work to check that you have included all the important information
clearly.

Citations and referencing in Academic

writing
Summarizing

Citations and referencing in Academic

writing
General Points about In-text Citation
The author and the date must be included for an in-text citation.
The date must be written in parentheses e.g. (1998), either before or after the quote.

The page number(s) must be given for all direct quotes and most indirect quotes, and
must be separated from the date by a colon, e.g (1998: 3)
If the authors name fits comfortably into your text, and you want to focus on the
author, do not put the name in parentheses, e.g. According to Brown, too little was
given by too few (1998: 3).
If your focus is more on the text than the author, and his/her name does not fit
comfortably into your text, include the authors name in the parentheses, e.g. It is
commonly believed that too little was given by too few (Brown, 1998: 3).
CITATION: Bilton, Bonnet and Jones
(1987) argue that increased rates of
divorce do not necessarily indicate that
families are now more unstable.

REFERENCES: Bilton, T., K. Bonnett

and P. Jones (1987). Introductory
Sociology, 2nd edition. London:

MacMillan

Citations and referencing in Academic

writing
General Points about In-text Citation
The author and the date are separated by a comma when they are both in parentheses,
e.g. (Brown, 1998)

When the in-text reference comes at the end of a sentence the full-stop is after the
parentheses, e.g. .(1998).
If there are more than 3 authors, just give the first author and then put et al
e.g. (Smith et al, 1999)
If you want to use a quote which is within another source, this is a Secondary citation
and should be done like this
(Brown, cited in Smith, 1999) This means that the article/book you looked at was written by
Smith, who used Brown as a reference.

Only Smith should be referenced in your reference list.

CITATION: Bilton, Bonnet and Jones

(1987) argue that increased rates of
divorce do not necessarily indicate that
families are now more unstable.

REFERENCES: Bilton, T., K. Bonnett

and P. Jones (1987). Introductory
Sociology, 2nd edition. London:

MacMillan

Citations and referencing in Academic

writing
Reference Lists
You should always provide a reference list at the end of your assignments which should
include all the material such as books, journals and websites which you have referred to
in the assignment.

NB A bibliography is a list of all the sources you have used, even if you have not cited
them. Therefore, it includes your reference list plus any other material you have read.
You will need to ask your instructors if they require a bibliography in addition to a
reference list.

Reference List General Rules

Sources are listed alphabetically by the surname of the author
The authors surname comes first and then the authors initial, separated by a
comma and followed by a full stop
All parts of the reference are separated by a comma, except the authors initial
and the year
The citation should finish with a full stop
There are many variations on the rules and the format, and you will see many
different styles of referencing. The main thing to remember is to be consistent.
The guidelines which follow are meant to help you in writing your reference
list, but you will need to check with individual instructors about their style
preferences.

Task - Reference List

Author: Gordon Brown
Year :
Article Title: Some things are better left unsaid: An introduction to the art of
minding your own business
Journal: Journal of Self Improvement, [online],Vol. 3, No. 2.
Available: Proquest 5000, [Accessed 7 June 2003].

If you were to add the above article to your

reference list, how would you write it:

Reference List
Brown, G. 1998, Some things are better left unsaid: An
introduction to the art of minding your own business,
Journal of Self Improvement, [online],Vol. 3, No. 2.
Available: Proquest 5000, [Accessed 7 June 2003].
Note: the full URL is not necessary when a database is used,
only the name of the database needs to be given.
Note: page numbers are often not available for online articles,
therefore the URL or database name is important.
Note: there is a full stop before Available, and the accessed
date is in brackets.

Reference List General Rules

Book
Example:
Brown, J. 1998, Essay Writing for University Students, Sage, London. Note: Title is in italics and first
letters are capitalized.
For more than one author the names are listed as they appear on the book cover (or journal
reference etc.) and are separated by commas and an ampersand between the final two.
Example: Brown, J., Smith, L., & Jones, P. 1998, How to Write Good Essays, Sage, London.

An edited Book
Example:
Brown, J. & Smith, C. (eds), 1998, Essay Writing for University Students, Sage, London. Note: (ed/s) is
used to show the names are editors, not authors.

Chaper or section of a Book

Example:
Jones, P. 1997, Some students simply cannot write good essays, in Essay Writing for University
Students, ed. J. Brown, Sage, London, pp 12-32.
Note: the chapter title is not in italics and only the first word has a capital letter.
Note: ed. is used to introduce the editors name, and his/her initial comes before the surname.

Reference List General Rules

Journal Article
Example:
Brown, G. 1998, Some things are better left unsaid: An introduction to the art of minding your own
business, Journal of Self Improvement, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp 4 15.
Note: when available, the issue number and page numbers should also be included.

Electronic Journal Article

Example:
Brown, G. 1998, Some things are better left unsaid: An introduction to the art of minding your own
business, Journal of Self Improvement, [online],Vol. 3, No. 2.
Available: Proquest 5000, [Accessed 7 June 2003].
Note: the full URL is not necessary when a database is used, only the name of the database needs to be given.
Note: page numbers are often not available for online articles, therefore the URL or database name is
important.
Note: there is a full stop before Available, and the accessed date is in brackets.

Reference List General Rules

News paper or magazine Article
Example: Greenwood, J. 2004, When time runs out, Gulf News, 23rd June, p 4. Note: if the newspaper
is online, the URL and accessed date must be included and the page number is not needed.

Electronic Article
Example:
Brown, G. 1998, Some things are better left unsaid: An introduction to the art of minding your own
business, Self Improvement. Available: http://www.selfimprovment.com/brown/html [Accessed
23 June, 2001].
Note: sometimes the name of the website is difficult to find. You may need to do some searching. If it is not
available you can omit it from the reference.

Reference List General Rules

Work with no publication date
Example
Anderson, K. n.d., Ten Things to Know About Eating Fruit, Longman, London.
Film or TV program
Example:
The twentieth century, 3 July 1998, Modern Life, Discovery Channel, USA
(television program).
Example:
Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, 2002, Paramount Pictures, (film).

These are guidelines for referencing the kinds of material you are
likely to use in your work. If you find you have other material not
covered by these guidelines, you will need to ask your instructor
for advice on how to reference it properly.

Reference List General Rules

Book
Example:
Brown, J. 1998, Essay Writing for University Students, Sage, London. Note: Title is in italics and first
letters are capitalized.
For more than one author the names are listed as they appear on the book cover (or journal
reference etc.) and are separated by commas and an ampersand between the final two.
Example: Brown, J., Smith, L., & Jones, P. 1998, How to Write Good Essays, Sage, London.

An edited Book
Example:
Brown, J. & Smith, C. (eds), 1998, Essay Writing for University Students, Sage, London. Note: (ed/s) is
used to show the names are editors, not authors.

Chaper or section of a Book

Example:
Jones, P. 1997, Some students simply cannot write good essays, in Essay Writing for University
Students, ed. J. Brown, Sage, London, pp 12-32.
Note: the chapter title is not in italics and only the first word has a capital letter.
Note: ed. is used to introduce the editors name, and his/her initial comes before the surname.

Reference List General Rules

Work with no publication date
Example
Anderson, K. n.d., Ten Things to Know About Eating Fruit, Longman, London.
Film or TV program
Example:
The twentieth century, 3 July 1998, Modern Life, Discovery Channel, USA
(television program).
Example:
Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, 2002, Paramount Pictures, (film).

These are guidelines for referencing the kinds of material you are
likely to use in your work. If you find you have other material not
covered by these guidelines, you will need to ask your instructor
for advice on how to reference it properly.

Checking out

Questions?
Final thoughts ...
Evaluation