Referencing

A referencing system allows your readers to check on specific facts that you present in your report. It tells the reader, precisely where to look if they want to know more about the information you are presenting. If you only provide a bibliography, it will take your readers a long time to find what they are looking for. A referencing system overcomes this problem. There are two main types of referencing, the Traditional and the Harvard systems. In the Traditional system you follow a piece of information, which need referencing, with a number like this. Then at the bottom of the page or at the end of the section you list all of the numbers you have used with the relevant information about the author, publication and page number, so that a reader can check what you have written. You have probably seen this system used in many text books in the past. This system is now becoming less common. Most people now use the Harvard system. Instead of following information with a number and listing the source elsewhere, in the Harvard system you give the readers that information right there in the text. After quoting the ideas or work of someone else, you would immediately put in brackets that persons name and where the information came from, as in the following example. an effective plain English writing style is clear, concise, complete, courteous, correct, considerate and concrete. (Dwyer, 1993, 202) That tells you that the quote comes from Dwyer, in a book or article published in 1993 and the precise quote comes from page 202. There is no need to give more information than that here because the rest of the details can be found in the full reference found in the biography. Of course if there is more than one publication by Dwyer, 1193 listed in the bibliography, then it will be necessary to differentiate between them. This can be done by adding a letter a, b etc to the date in the text and the bibliography. Look at the quote again, you will notice that it starts with three dots, or points of ellipsis. These indicate that words have been left out of the beginning of Dwyers sentence. It is all right to do this as long as you indicate, that this has been done. It is usually done in order to leave out irrelevant information, but it can have the effect of changing the meaning that the original author intended, so it must be done carefully. Note that only three points of ellipsis are used, however many words are left out. You may also add your own words to a quote, in order to make it clearer. However, you must indicate which words are yours by using parentheses [ ]. For example He [John Smith] was convicted on December 4th , 1995. (Parton, 1996, 15). Without the addition of the persons name, it would not be possible to understand the quote. The original article was all about John Smith, so there was no need to use his name in every sentence.

When quoting someones exact words, you must use quotation marks . If the quotation is longer than a couple of lines, then it should be single spaced, indented both right and left. For example Punctuation in sentences give a flow to the written version of the English language. It creates an impression of the correct sound in readers mind. This helps understanding. (Dwyer, 1197, 244)

When to Reference
So far we have looked at referencing direct quotes from another writer. However, this is not the only time that you must reference. Even when you have put the information into your own words, if it originally came from someone else, then you must reference. The only exception, is when the information is common knowledge, For example, if you write that the Second World War ended in 1945, you dont need to reference (say where you got the information) because it is common knowledge. However, if you say that 250.000 umbrellas were lost on the London Underground in 1993, that is not common knowledge and should be accompanied by a reference. One way of deciding whether you need to reference is to ask yourself the question: Could anyone reading this reasonably ask: How do you know that? or Where did that come from? or Who Says?. If they could, you should be providing the answer in the form of a reference. If you do not, then you may be open to charges of plagiarism. Not acknowledging that the information comes from someone else is the same as saying it is entirely your own. Plagiarising can lead to you failing an entire subject or course. Most educational institutions are very strict when it comes to plagiarism.

How to write a Bibliography

When you writing references for books, magazines, journals and newspapers, there is a specific information that needs to be provided in a specific order and format. This is outlined on the following page, with examples to illustrate how the information would look when presented (on a separate page) at the end of the report.

How to write references for books

When you are writing references for a book, there are certain items of information that should be included:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Author(s) either a person or an institution Title - plus the sub-title if there is one. Edition if it is not the first one. Place of publication Name of publisher Date of publication

You can take this information from the title page of the book itself or from the entry in the library catalogue. The following examples illustrate how to set out references for books: Usually the author;s surname comes first. 1. When one individual is author DWYER, Judith, 1197 The business Communication Handbook, 4th ed, Australia, Prentice Hall 2. When two or three individuals are joint authors: SMIT, WE, and SMIT, A.M., 1975 Minatama, New York, Rinehart and Winston. 3. When an organisation is the author: INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING ASSOCIATION, 1977 Controversy Advertising: How Advertisers Present Points of view in public Affairs, New York, Hastings. 4 When a Government Department is the author: Put the name of the country or state first, followed by the name of the Department. AUSTRALIA, COMMONWEALTH EMPLOYMENT OFFICE, 1982, Job Guide for Victoria, Canberra, Australian Government Publishing Service.

How to write references for articles

Periodicals Periodicals are publications that are produced at regular intervals, such as magazines, journals and newspapers. In general you will find that all issues of a magazine or journal published in one year are collectively called a volume, which is often given a number. Each issue within that volume may be identified by either a number, the

name of the month or a season. However, inspect the journal carefully. It may have an entirely individual numbering system. 1. Journal and Magazine articles

A reference for an article from a journal or magazine should include the following information: (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) Author of the article (if given) Title of the article. Name of the magazine or Journal. Volume and/or issue of journal Date of Publication Page number(s)

Example Mozzie Repellents Update Choice Volume 36. February 1995, pp 32-33 2. Newspaper Articles

Because they are published so frequently, newspaper articles are identified by the date. Include the following information: (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) Author (if given) Title of article Name of newspaper Page number(s) Full date

Example Conroy, Paul. :Brain damaged man sues police on shooting, Age. 10 March 1995, p1 Non-book material The details are the same as those for books, with the type of material indicated at the end of the brackets. Example 1 Videos: Report Writing, 1995 First Training (video) Example 2 Radio and television: Four Corners, 1995, Channel 2, November 25, (Television program)

Pamphlets, Leaflets These small publications often from organisations rather than individuals are sometimes difficult to cite in a bibliography because they have few of the usual publication details. Try to give enough relevant information to help your reader to locate the item, being guided by the requirements for books Interviews Information obtained directly from people and organisation should be acknowledged. Name a) b) The Internet Information obtained from the internet should be cited in a similar way to journal and newspaper articles. Remember, anyone can put anything on the Internet, so look for evidence that the person whos information/article you are using is an expert in that field. Look for qualification listed or whether the information is from a university or other educational institutions web site. If the information you are using is not identified by author, use the name of the organisation. For example, large organisations like Microsoft, often publish information which is expert and reliable, but the name of the individual author is not mentioned. You should also give the date that the information was last updated and the URL, Eg. http://www.unimelb.edu.au/diversity/index.html. For more detailed information about citing references, see Dwyer, Judith, 1997 The Business Communication Handbook, 4th ed. Prentice Hall 1994 or ask your tutor to suggest an alternative text Guidelines for format of references . . . . Always assemble information, ie author, title, publisher in the same order. Be consistent in your use of punctuation and capitals Be consistent in your use of capital letters Observe the conventions on underlining and italics which help to distinguish books from articles, ie Date Position

Underline the title of the book (or video-tape, recording etc) Underline the name of a periodical Enclose the title of an article in quotation marks.