LRSN : APA Referencing: Referencing Rules

Referencing is a method of acknowledging sources of information that you have included in your written work. You must acknowledge any source you use both within the text of your assignment and by listing it at the end of your assignment.

A number of different referencing systems have been developed for this purpose such as the APA, Harvard and Chicago referencing systems.

Referencing allows you to use the work of others to add weight and significance to your reports, essays, presentations without "stealing" their words and ideas.  

Clip Art sourced from Microsoft.

• Correct referencing helps you to avoid plagiarism. 

• You give credit to the author and acknowledge his/her work. 

• It enables readers to find and validate the information you have used. It also allows interested readers to find further information.

• You demonstrate to your lecturer/reader that you have read widely and have researched different sources of information.

• References may be used to support evidence and give strength to your arguments and proposals.

Step 1:

When taking notes for an assignment topic and gathering information, write down all the relevant bibliographic details of your information sources, such as author, date of publication, title, publisher and place of publication, etc.

See Getting Organised from Grinnell College and Referencing and note taking templates

Step 2:

Insert a brief citation or in-text reference at the appropriate place within the text of your assignment where this information is used. Example of an in-text reference in the APA style:

(Langford, 2002, p.22)

Step 3:

At the end of your assignment, add a reference list or bibliography containing all your end-text references. Example of an end-text reference in the APA style:

Langford. M. (2002). Basic photography. Oxford: Focal Press

See the 'More' tab for sample essay with in-text and end-text references/Reference list.

See tabs above on referencing other sources of information. (eg. journals, websites, etc.)

Important:

1. Remember that quoting, summarising and paraphrasing (even when referenced) should not make up your whole assignment.

2. They should only be used when providing evidence to support what you are writing about, providing definitions or key background information. 

3. In addition, you must reference when providing facts and figures that are not common knowledge. (ie. Statistics). 

Generally, you would reference whenever you include any of the following within your report / essay:

• another person's ideas or opinions
• statistical material, tables and figures
• direct quotations and indirect quotations.

A direct quotation is when you are quoting directly from another source word for word.

• quotations are usually used for definitions and shouldn't be used too often.
• quotations of less than 40 words are set out within the body of the text and enclosed with double quotation marks "  ".

For example:

... children are very adaptable. However, "it is no surprise that we are much better at recognising negative signals than positive ones" (Smith, 2011, p.36).

• quotations of more than 40 words should be set out in a block, commencing on a new line and indented from the left hand margin.
• Quotation marks are not used.

 For example:

An indirect quotation is when you are summarising or paraphrasing information from another source.

• Paraphrasing is used more often in assignments because lecturers want to see that you understand what you are writing about.
• Page numbers do not need to be included when you summarise someone's work. (usually when referring to a whole book or a whole article)

 Find out when to quote, paraphrase and summarise in Direct and Indirect Quotations under the 'More' tab.

When compiling assignments, it is likely that students will obtain information from a variety of information sources. While students need to reference any ideas or opinions that are not their own in their written work, the exception is the use of common knowledge or information of a general nature. Common knowledge includes facts that are well known within the community in which they are used; they do not need to be cited. 

The concept of common knowledge can be confusing for some students. So when in doubt, it is better to cite it.

Examples of common knowledge include:
             
          The Modern Olympic Games were first held in Athens.
          The sky is blue.
          World War 1 began in 1914.

The requirements for a Reference List are as follows:

The reference list at the end of the work contains the author's surname and initials, title and publication details. These include the edition, place and date of publication. Rules to follow:

• in alphabetical order using the surname of the author
• if there is no author, use the title of the material
• lines following the first line of entry must be in a hanging indent format, meaning that the first line of each reference is set flush left and subsequent lines are indented 

See sample essay

Here are some simple rules for listing authors in a Reference List:

• Arrange entries in alphabetical order by the surname of the first author followed by initials of the author's given name.
• Alphabetize letter by letter.

                 Example:    Singh, K.         precedes Singh Siddhu, N

                                      Lopez, M.E.   precedes Lopez de Molina, G

                                      Girard, J.B.     precedes Girard-Perregaus, A.S

•  Alphabetise the prefixes M', Mc and Mac literally, not as if they were all spelled Mac. Disregard the apostrophe.

                 Example:   MacArthur      precedes McAllister

                                     MacNeil          precedes M'Carthy