Referencing

In written work, it is professional practice and important that you acknowledge sources properly.
One of the most important skills of essay writing is presenting a literature review and providing
references for any conceptual inspiration or quotations taken from books or journals. You must also
list the texts you have used in a bibliography (see below). This is important because it allows your
readers to understand your argument better, trace your thoughts and use your essay as a basis for
their own research. The following notes on quotations, references and bibliography are based on the
Harvard System, which is the most widely used system in social sciences. There are other acceptable
ways of referencing; you can use them, but you have to be consistent in your choice.

References in text – Harvard System

The author’s name, the date of publication and, if appropriate, the page numbers are bracketed in
the text, following the quotation or summary of the text referred to. The reader may then obtain
full details of the work mentioned by turning to your complete bibliography. When paraphrasing it is
not always necessary to provide page numbers. However, when quoting a passage from a book or
article a page number is always needed.
(Sinnreich, 2015) or
(Sinnreich, 2015: 12)

Example: Visiting a blog or an online forum is simply not the same, practically and methodologically
speaking, as going to an actual field site (Underberg and Zorn, 2013). As Christine Hine argues,
virtual ethnography is often based on ‘experiential rather than physical displacement’ (2000: 45).

Quotations
Quotations inserted in the main body of the text should always be between quotation marks. Any
quotations over three lines should be indented and single-spaced; they do not require quotation
marks. In both cases, this makes clear that you are not passing someone else’s work as your own

Example 1: But print languages also allow for the creation of imagined communities that break open
the seams of national boundaries. ‘[T]he concrete formation of contemporary nation-states is by no
means isomorphic with the determinate reach of particular print-languages’ (Anderson, 1983: 46).

Please note how the period (or full stop) comes only after the reference.
Also note how only the last name of the author is mentioned in the reference.
Example 2: With the introduction of new media, not only images, texts and formats but also cultural
practices get readjusted and transformed. Indeed, when looking at media practices it becomes clear
that:

When the new media replace or mix with traditional ones, a long established practice
may be perturbed or even disrupted by the discontinuity. Different modes of integration
must be sought between pre-existing and new objects, routines, and representations in
order to re-establish the practice’s ecological balance and the smooth flow of effective and
unproblematic activity. (Lanzara, 2010: 2)

In his work, Lanzara further illustrates this idea of a remediation of practice with two different case-
studies.

Please note how the period (or full stop) now comes before the reference. This is the case with an
indented quote. After the reference, there is no period (or full stop) anymore.
Also note how only the quote is single-spaced and indented, while the rest of the text is not.

In case you are in doubt whether a page number is necessary or not, always provide a page number.
If there are no page numbers in the text that you are quoting, please specify this by adding “np” or
“not paged”. For example: (Lanzara, 2010: np)
If you are using a quote that is cited by another author, you should make this clear in your reference
by adding the word “in”. For example, if you are citing Bauman as quoted by Hall, you will write the
quote followed by: (Bauman, in Hall 1992: 174.)
When in doubt about whether or not it is necessary to provide a page number, the following can be
a helpful guideline. If you are paraphrasing a specific point and it is necessary (or helpful) to indicate
where this idea can be found in the book, please provide a page number. If you are paraphrasing a
generic point that a book or article makes, then you do not need to give the page number. But note
that you should always use your own words to explain the idea when you are paraphrasing.

Bibliography
You should always provide a separate bibliography in which you list all the works you have
consulted alphabetically. Bibliographies are always led by the author’s name. The order of the rest
of the information may vary according to a number of accepted models. Below is one version of this
order. You may choose to follow another order in presenting the information but you should always
be consistent. Book, film or journal titles should be underlined or italicised, and chapter or article
titles in quotation marks. You should not only provide the publisher but also the city in which the
book was published. For example: London, Routledge.
Examples of How to do a Bibliography
Books:

GILROY, P. (1993) The Black Atlantic. Modernity and Double Consciousness. London, Verso.
DURING, S. (ed.) (1993) The Cultural Studies Reader. London and New York, Routledge.
RATTANSI, A. & WESTWOOD, S. (eds.) (1994) Racism, Modernity & Identity on the Western Front.
Cambridge, Polity.
Chapter in book by same author:
FUSS, D. (1989) Lesbian and gay theory: the question of identity politics (pp. 97-112). In Essentially
Speaking. Feminism, Nature & Difference. London and New York, Routledge.
Chapter in book edited by other authors:
BHABHA, H. (1990) The Third Space: Interview with Homi Bhabha (pp. 207-221). In RUTHERFORD, J.
(ed.) Identity. Community, Culture, Difference. London, Lawrence & Wishart.
Articles in journals:
GLEASON, P. (1983) Identifying Identity: A Semantic History. The Journal of American History, 69(4),
910-931.
Internet references:
List author, year (if known), title of the essay or site, and URL, followed by the date you accessed the
site in brackets:
FORTIER, A-M. (2002) Multiculturalism and the face of Britain. Available at:
http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/sociology/soc095af.htm [Accessed 11 June 2012]

More details about using the Harvard System can be found here:
https://answers.lancaster.ac.uk/display/LLD/Harvard+Referencing