Distance Learning Support Kit: Welcome

The number of different referencing styles can, at first, be quite mind-boggling. This situation isn't made any easier by the fact that new referencing styles are continually evolving. Things are further complicated by the reality that you may also need to be competent in several different styles during your time at university.

Don't despair, however. Understanding these different referencing styles can be made easier by grouping them into two major referencing systems. It's helpful to think of these major referencing systems as a family tree.

The two main branches of this family tree are the Numerical and the Author-date systems of referencing.

The Numerical system (also known as the Oxford system) uses numbers in the form of footnotes and endnotes. This style of referencing is most commonly used in the disciplines of Law, History and some of the Health Sciences.

In the numerical system, footnotes appear in numerical order ie. 1,2.3,4.... etc at the bottom or the foot of the page. Endnotes also appear in numerical order but they're placed either at the end of a chapter for example, or at the end of an assignment or article.

Example

Numerical system of referencing (footnotes)

Imagine that the following text is part of the body of your assignment.

It would seem that eating goes beyond simply catering for the nutritional needs of human beings. According to Fiddes, for example, foods 'express social values and by consuming them we acknowledge a shared set of meanings'1. 1. Nick Fiddes (1991) Meat: a natural symbol. Routledge, Lopndon, p.34

Most students will be using the Author-Date system of referencing. An easy way to remember this system is to think of it as in-text referencing ie. the reference is placed in brackets within the text (assignment/essay/report) itself. A number of permutations of this style have evolved over the years including Harvard, MLA, APA, Vancouver etc. but they all follow the basic rule of placing the reference within the text.

Example

In-text system of referencing

Imagine that the following text is part of the body of your assignment.

It would seem that eating goes beyond simply catering for the nutritional needs of human beings. According to Fiddes (1991) for example, foods 'express social values, and by consuming them we acknowledge a shared set of meanings'. (p.34)

Another way of writing this would be:

It would seem that eating goes beyond simply catering for the nutritional needs of human beings. Rather, foods 'express social values, and by consuming them we acknowledge a shared set of meanings.' (Fiddes, 1991, p.34)

NOTE: a direct quotation (as indicated by the use of quotation marks) requires you also give the page number with in-text referencing.