Distance Learning Support Kit: Welcome

Referencing

Be consistent with your referencing. For example, if you put the publisher before the place of publication, do so with all your references.

Take care with punctuation. The fashion at the moment is for less rather than more punctuation so a useful question to ask yourself is: Do I need punctuation to help the reader understand what I'm saying? (A good way to determine this is to read what you have written out loud). Regardless of style, punctuation needs to be consistent.

Include page numbers when you use direct quotes (as indicated by the use of quotation marks).

If you read a book, journal etc and come across the ideas of someone that you would like to use in your assignment, but the only source you have is in a secondary text (ie. you have not read the original) then you do need to signal this to the reader.

Example

Imagine that you have read an article by Linda Conrad in which the author refers to the work of M. Powles, but you have not read Powles in the original. If you wish to refer to Powles in your assignment you would need to reference as follows:

According to Powles (1989 cited in Conrad 1994: 52) women who enrol as postgraduates are at greater risk than are men of late completion or withdrawal.

The term cited in indicates to the reader that you read about Powles in Conrad's article.

DON'T

Mix and match referencing styles in one piece of written work.

If you are using in-text referencing, don't include the author's given name or initials in any references you include in the body of the assignment. All you need is the author's surname, the date of publication and if necessary, the page number.