Referencing Sources

Useful Resources:

Essential Articles Fact File Issues

Your CallHot Topics Quotations

Useful Websites:www.idebate.org/index.php(debatabase)www.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk

(UK Newsstand) www.independence.co.uk(issues key facts)

Avoiding Plagiarism Your essay has to be your own work. For discursive essays you can read and/or quote

from existing materials. Ensure that any source you are going to use is

correctly referenced. Every time you look at a source make a note of

its details, and the date you looked at it. By doing this you know what you looked at

when, and you have a record of it for your reference list.

Your sources can then be easily found by anyone who reads your work, so that if necessary they can check them for evidence.

How to use your sources Every direct quote you make should be in

inverted commas. All information not in quotation marks should

be written in your own words. Cutting and pasting is NOT allowed. Rewording or summarising information from a

source and not referencing it is also plagiarism.

At the end of your essay write a reference list containing any sources you have cited in your text.

Citing sources in your work Whenever you refer to information from

a source or use a direct quote you need to acknowledge this in the body of your work.

Just give the author’s name and the date in brackets.

eg (Smith, 2009) The full reference will be in the list at the

end of your essay.

What source information do you need?

Web sources

The most important details you need are the web address (url), and the date you accessed the site.

If the information is from an article within the website you will need to try and find the author and title of the article as well as when it was first written.

How to find author information from a web site Check the bottom and top

of the article to see if there is an author’s name and/or copyright details.

Click on the home page of the website and read the “about us” section to see if you can find a name.

Check to see if there are any references within the article which might help.

Referencing a web source with an author

Use the following format:

Author/editor (date written) Title Available from: url (date accessed)

eg:Richardson, H (14 May 2010)Universites say students may face earlier loan payback Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/10115822.stm

(accessed 14/05/2010)

Referencing a web source with no author

Economic and Social Research Council (2007) Security and Terrorism in the UK Available from: http://www.independence.co.uk/issues-online (accessed 18/05/2010)

Referencing a book source

Find the information by using the title page and the back of the title page – NOT the cover.

The format should be:

Author/Editor’s Surname, Initials (year of publication) Title (series) Place of publication: publisher

Note: -if there is an editor rather than an author put (ed.) after the editor’s name

Example of a book referenceKobasa, Paul A (ed.)(2008) Earthquakes (Library of Natural disasters) Chicago: World Book

Referencing an article from a book containing a collection of articles The format should be:

Author (date) ‘Title of article’ orig publication, in Title of book issue info (date) page ref

Example: Kelly, J (2009) ‘Are girls better than

boys’ Baby Essentials in Essential Articles 12 (2010) p.84

Reference List Put all the sources of information

you have quoted into alphabetical order by author/editor’s surname.

List the sources in this order at the end of your work.

Sample Reference ListEconomic and Social Research Council (2007) Security and

Terrorism in the UK Available from: http://www.independence.co.uk/issues-online (accessed 18/05/2010)

Kelly, J (2009) “Are girls better than boys” Baby Essentials in Essential Articles 12 (2010)p.84

Kobasa, Paul A (ed.)(2008) Earthquakes (Library of Natural disasters) Chicago: World Book

Richardson, H (14 May 2010) Universites say students may face earlier loan payback Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/10115822.stm

(accessed 14/05/2010)