Introduction

When you write an assignment or essay, it is very important that you acknowledge the source of anyone else's ideas that you have used or mentioned in your work. If you don't, you could be accused of plagiarism (plagiarism occurs when the work of another person, or persons, is used and presented as one’s own, unless the source of each quotation or the piece of borrowed material is acknowledged with an appropriate citation) - a charge that is taken very seriously by the academic world.

Of course it's important to keep a note of all the sources you've used so that you can acknowledge and reference them properly.

What is referencing?

Referencing is a standardized method of acknowledging sources of information and ideas that you have used in your assignment in a way that identifies the source and enables someone to verify quotations and follow-up a cited author's arguments.

Direct quotations, facts and figures, as well as ideas and theories, from both published and unpublished works must be referenced.

Steps involved in referencing

• Take down the full bibliographical details including the page number(s) from which the information is taken.

In the case of a book, "bibliographical details" refers to:
author/editor
year of publication
edition
volume number
publisher and place of publication.

(Not all of these details will necessarily be applicable.)

In the case of a journal article it refers to:
author of article
year of publication
title of article
journal/serial title
volume number
issue number
page numbers on which the article appears.

(Not all of these details will necessarily be applicable.)

In the case of electronic information it refers to:
author/editor
year of publication
article title
journal title
the type of medium (e.g. CD-ROM, Online, etc.)
pages or length
“Available” statement (e.g. WWW address, supplier and
name of electronic database, Email address, etc.)
access date

(Not all of these details will necessarily be applicable.)

• Insert the citation at the appropriate place within the text of the document (see examples below).
• Provide a reference list at the end of the document (see examples below).

How to cite references within the text of an assignment

When citing references within the text of an assignment use only the name of the author, followed by the year of publication.

Lockyer (1973) was the first to propound the theory.

When directly quoting from another source, ensure that quotation marks are used and the relevant page number(s) are given.

Lockyer (1973, p. 10) explains that “another occurrence
of the term ‘prophet’ is in connection with Saul.”

Works with no author: When a work has no author or the author is anonymous, cite in-text the first few words of the reference list entry (usually the title) and the year. Use Italics for the title as follows:

This was apparently not the case in Egypt and Mesopotamia
(The Oxford history of the Biblical world 1998).

Multiple authors: When a work by two or three authors is cited in parentheses, the textual reference should be as:

(Eisenman & Wise 1992)
(Ham, Sarfati & Wieland 1999)

When the authors’ names are incorporated in the text, the ampersand is replaced by ‘and’:

Eisenman and Wise (1992) were unable....
Ham, Sarfati and Wieland (1999) agreed....
For a work that has more than three authors, only the surname of the first listed author is used, followed by the expression ‘et al.’ (or ‘and others’). For example, a work by Ham, Sarfati, Wieland and Batten becomes:

Ham et al. (1999) have found....
.... the best example (Ham et al. 1999).

Citing a Web site: To cite a Web page within the text of an assignment, give the address of the site (e.g. http://www.melbcopts.org). To cite a document from a Web site you must follow the author/date format. In both cases an entry will still be required in the reference list.

How to create a Reference List

A list of references contains details only of those works cited in the text. If relevant sources that are not cited in the text are included, the list is called a bibliography.

The Reference List is arranged alphabetically by author. Where an item has no author it is cited by its title, and ordered in the reference list or bibliography in sequence by the first significant word of the title.

The Harvard style requires the second and subsequent lines of the reference to be indented, as shown below, to highlight the alphabetical order.

Examples of types of printed references

Book:

Bibliographic details are arranged in the sequence:

author/ editor(s)
year of publication
title of book
edition of book
publisher
place of publication

Book with a single author

Brakke, David. 1995, Athanasius and the politics of asceticism, Clarendon Press, Oxford.

Book with 2 authors

Thiede, Carsten Peter & d’Ancona, Matthew. 1996, The Jesus papyrus, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London.

Book with 3 or more authors

Ham, K., Sarfati, J., & Wieland, C. 1999, The Answers book, Answers in Genesis, Queensland.

Book with no author

The Christological controversy 1980, Fortress Press, Philadelphia.

Articles/chapters in book:

Bibliographic details are arranged in the sequence:

author of chapter
year of publication
chapter title
title of book
editor(s) of book
publisher
place of publication
article or chapter pages
Article or chapter in a book

Dillon, J. 1982, ‘Origen’s doctrine of the Trinity and some later Neoplatonic theories’, in Neoplatonism and Christian thought, ed. Dominic J. O’Meara, International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, Norfolk, Virginia, pp. 19-23.

Article or chapter in a book (no author)

‘The Dead Sea Scrolls’ 1982, in The historical Jesus, ed. G. Cornfeld, Macmillan, New York, p. 18.

Article in an encyclopaedia

Frend, W. H. C. 1991, ‘Chalcedon, Council of,’ in The Coptic Encyclopaedia, vol. 2, New York, Macmillan, pp. 512-515.

Journal Article:

Bibliographic details are arranged in the sequence:

author of journal article
year of publication
article title
title of journal
volume of journal
issue number of journal
article pages

Journal article

Ayad, Boulous Ayad. 2000, ‘The Coptic Orthodox Church,’ Coptic Church Review, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 114-118.

Journal article (no author)

‘The relation between the Egyptian and Ethiopian Churches’ 1994, Coptologia, XIV, pp. 85-100.

Videorecording:

D is for dinosaur (video recording) 1992, Sunnybank, Qld.,
The Foundation, Animated by Keith Mayers.

Example of electronic reference:

World Wide Web

Bibliographic details are arranged in the sequence:

author/editor
year of publication
article title
journal title
the type of medium (e.g. CD-ROM, Online, etc.)
pages or length
“Available” statement (e.g. WWW address, supplier
and name of electronic database, Email address, etc.)
access date

World Wide Web page:

Malaty, Fr. Tadros Yacoub. 1996, The Book of Revelation
[Online], Available:
http://www.frtadrosmalaty.org/topics/books/e_books/biblestudy/
newtestament/index.htm [2001, April 19].