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Lowther Hall Nora Collisson Centre (Library): Referencing Help & Writing a Bibliography

Referencing someone else's words or ideas

Citations always have 2 parts:

  1. In-text citation (a brief citation within your assignment)
  2. A bibliography or reference list (a list of full citations at the end of your assignment)

An in-text citation is how you acknowledge resources within your work.

Example of an in-text citation for a quote:

"Being able to put right the things that are wrong in your life is essential to living it the way you want to" (Ratcliffe 2003, p.13).

Example of an in-text citation for an idea (when you are paraphrasing someone else's words):

Ratcliffe (2003, p.13) states that we need change things that aren't working for us in order to improve our lives.

Please note: Your teacher will specify if you need to provide in-text citations, as well as a bibliography. At Lowther Hall, you will always need to provide a bibliography or reference list of where you have found your information. You may not, however, be required to provide in-text citations. Be sure to check with your teacher!

Bibliography and Reference List examples

For each in-text citation you will need to record the full details in the Bibliography or Reference List.

A bibliography or reference list is a detailed list of resources used or consulted in the preparation of your work. It goes at the end of your assignment, and all resources in it are listed alphabetically.

At Lowther, we use the Harvard referencing style, which means resources in your bibliography should be written in the following format:

Material Type

Format

Example
Book Author Year of publication, Title of book,  Publisher, Place of publication. King, S 1974, Carrie, Hodder & Staughton, London.

Website

Author (the person or organisation responsible for the site) Year (Date website created/revised), Title, Viewed date (Day Month Year), <URL>.

The University of Melbourne 2018, re:cite, 22 August 2018, < https://library.unimelb.edu.au/recite>.

Print article

Author Year of publication, 'Title of article', Name of Publication, Volume, Issue, Page numbers.

Engler, M 2012, ‘Obama: a better adversary’, New Internationalist, vol. 455, September, p. 33.

Online article

Author Year of publication, 'Title of article', Name of Publication, Volume, Issue, Page numbers, date of viewing (Day Month Year), <URL>.

Gorman, GE 2008, 'The plague of plagiarism in an online world', Online Information Review, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 297-301, viewed 23 May 2016, <http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/14684520810889637>.

DVD or video or film

Title Date of recording, Format, Publisher, Place of recording.

Bladerunner 2006, DVD recording, Warner Brothers Home Entertainment Australia, Australia.

Image or photograph or artwork from a book

Author of book Date, Title of book, Publisher, Place of publication.

 Liebovitz, A 2002, Dancers: photographs by Annie Liebovitz, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.
Online image or artwork Artist (the person or organisation responsible, if available) Year, Title of image (or a description), description of document (if applicable), date of viewing (Day Month Year), <URL>.

_Torne 2016, Paint my heart black, digital photograph, viewed 2 June 2019, <https://www.flickr.com/photos/_torne/24077228523/>

Online referencing tools

There are various online tools that can help you with your citations, but make sure you check to see they are correct!

Some also have apps so you can keep track of your references on the go.

Bibliographies and Reference Lists

There are two main ways to list your sources, with a reference list or a bibliography.

Reference lists include sources that have been directly cited in your paper. 

Bibliographies, on the other hand, contain all the sources that you have used for your paper, whether they are directly cited or not.

Why do I need to cite my sources?

   Referencing is a requirement for all your assignments if you use someone else's words or ideas. It helps to:

  • avoid plagiarism
  • acknowledge the owner of the information you used
  • help yourself and others find the original information
  • show that other people back up your ideas, making you look more like an expert!

What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is the suspected or confimed:

  1. copying the work of someone else by a student
  2. allowing another student to copy your work
  3. copying materials from a source without citing it
  4. using a person to write your work and passing it off as your own

What do I need to cite?

I need more help!

    Visit the library if you need assistance with your citations.

You could also take a look at some books we have available: