CAES1000 Task 3 Report (Semester One, 2020-2021)

CAES1000 Core University English

Writing Task 3 Report – Topic and Question

Task 3: Writing a Well-structured and Well-argued

Report (Assessed – Writing 35%; Annotations 5%)

The aim of this task is to give you practice of the academic writing skills learnt so far in the
course. These skills include: (i) expressing a clearly argued and critical stance and (ii) using
the ideas of others to support your stance through citation and referencing.

Submission Deadline:
2 December, 2020 (Wednesday 5:00pm)
(Upload your work to Turnitin by 5:00pm)
Submission Guidelines:
• You must submit a soft copy to Turnitin by 5:00pm on the due date of the assignment.
Your teacher may require a hard copy of your submission. Please check with your class
teacher.
• Following CAES rules, assignments which are handed in up to 4 days late will have one
full letter grade deducted each day. If your assignment is more than 4 days late, it will
be treated as a non-submission (N – 0 marks) and will not be marked.
• If you are sick and unable to hand in an assignment, you must contact your teacher
immediately to work out possible solutions. No work after the deadline will be accepted
without a legitimate reason.

Note:
The four reading texts provided have been adapted for assessment purposes. Their information
has been substantially modified. It is advised that students should not refer to the original texts
and make any comparisons.

Instructions:
1. You should write 1000-1200 words for this assignment (including all in-text citations).
Anything beyond 1200 words will not be read. Write the number of words for your
report at the end of the text. This does not include the words in the reference list and the
words in annotations.
2. You should cite and reference the reading texts given to you (4 in total) in your report and
you have to also find at least ONE or a maximum of TWO sources of your own choice
to support your stance. Your reference list should include a maximum of 6 entries only.
All extra or additional entries will be ignored.
3. Include a reference list at the end of your writing which conforms to the CUE Citation and
Referencing Style Guide. You can find it at the end of this task paper.
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 CAES1000 Task 3 Report (Semester One, 2020-2021)
4. Complete the Turnitin Independent Learning Task (videos on how to use Turnitin and
how to check for plagiarism) on the CUE Course Moodle using the report you have just
written. Keep on doing the task until the document is plagiarism free.
5. Once the text is plagiarism free, make 8-12 annotations on your text using insert comments.
These annotations should highlight where you have applied your learning from this course.
Each annotation must relate to a different feature of academic writing. You have to
provide clear and enough details for each annotation.
6. Upload your work to Turnitin before the deadline.

Notes about creating your Turnitin account:

• Please use your HKU email address and create an account. Using any personal/non-HKU
email addresses is not allowed.
• Make sure you only have ONE Turnitin account using your HKU email address (multiple
accounts may lead to self-plagiarism).
• If Turnitin indicates that your HKU Email ID is already being used for another account,
please reset your password (click "Login" and “Forgot your password? Click here”).
• If you have any Turnitin problems, please contact HKU Turnitin Support Service (Tel:
3917-2203; Email: turnitin@hku.hk).

Assessment Criteria:
You will be assessed on the quality of your report which is worth 35% of your final grade.
The assessment criteria are on the CUE Course Moodle.

You will also be assessed on the quality of your annotations. This will be worth 5% of your
final grade. The assessment criteria for this are as follows:

Standard Expectations of student performance

The majority of your annotations show a good understanding of the
Satisfactory
academic writing skills being practised in the course. You have provided
(5%)
clear and enough details for each annotation.
You will be given an unsatisfactory grade if one or more of the following is
true:
§ Only a few or none of your annotations show a good understanding of the
Unsatisfactory academic writing skills being practised in the course.
(1.5%) § You have made fewer than 8 annotations.
§ Each of your annotations is not related to separate aspects of academic
writing.
§ Most of your annotations are unclear and without enough details.
§ You have copied your annotations from another student.
Non-submission You did not annotate your Task 3 Report.
(0%)

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CAES1000 Task 3 Report (Semester One, 2020-2021)
Topic: Urban Agriculture

WRITE A REPORT

Write an academic report to recommend ways to appropriately implement an urban

agriculture scheme in your city. You may want to discuss expected benefits and challenges of
urban agriculture schemes or anything else that can justify your recommendations.

TASK DESCRIPTION

Note:
The four reading texts provided have been adapted for assessment purposes. Their information
has been substantially modified. It is advised that students should not refer to the original texts
and make any comparisons.

Text 1 – Authored by Kennard, D. and Bamford, R. / From a chapter titled Urban

agriculture: Opportunities and challenges for sustainable development in an edited
book titled Zero Hunger / 2020 / Edited by W. Filho / Published by Springer / pages 1
to 14.

Introduction: Urban agriculture vs. food scarcity

Urban agriculture (UA) can be used as a mechanism to contribute to food security. The
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO, 2007) has defined urban
agriculture as “the growing of plants and the raising of animals for food and other uses
within and around cities and towns” (p. 24). UA is integrated into the local economic and
ecological system of cities and can include nearby towns and suburbs that supply to urban
areas.

The ability to secure a stable and accessible supply of food for a global population of 9.7
billion by 2050, whilst limiting contributions to climate change and conserving the world’s
limited water, land, and energy resources, is one of the most pressing and complex
challenges facing the world today (United Nations Department of Economic and Social
Affairs [UN DESA], 2019). As the world’s population becomes increasingly urbanised,
with an estimated 68% of the global population living in urban areas by 2050, agricultural
land will continue to be strained further to meet the nutritional needs of these densely
populated areas (FAO, 2015; UN DESA, 2018). In light of these issues, UA has emerged
as one approach to contribute to local food security by increasing the availability and
accessibility of fresh and healthy produce in food insecure areas in cities.

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Table 1: Types of Urban Agriculture

Personal (private) Community (public) Commercial

Household gardens
(backyard, balcony, indoor)
Subsistence growing (mini-
farms)
Community gardens
(including gardens at places
like schools, senior citizen
homes, etc.)
Allotments
Rooftop gardens (inside
residential buildings)
/greenhouses
Small urban farms (vacant
lots, rooftops)
Indoor farms (inside
buildings, shipping
containers, warehouses,
etc.)
Vertical farms

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Benefits of urban agriculture

Integrating agricultural spaces into the built environment can provide a wide variety of
ecological and cultural services for cities, whilst providing solutions to other urban
problems such as waste and water cycling. For example, UA spaces in cities can be
important for reducing local air temperatures, improving air and water quality, repairing
soil quality, and enhancing biodiversity via habitat creation for wildlife.

In addition, UA provides social benefits by creating an interactive space for urbanites to

reconnect to their food system and the natural environment, improving personal health,
creating feelings of relaxation and well-being, and providing areas for community
engagement and education.

Urban agriculture, nutrition and food safety

Locally produced foods may be perceived as higher quality by consumers, as food quality
perception relates to aspects of origin, trust, freshness, and flavour; indeed, being able to
visit the farm and meet the growers provides a high level of transparency about the
production of the food, which can be important for those who are suspicious of the origins
of products in supermarkets. However, potential issues with food safety for urban-
produced foods can also adversely influence the perception of food quality, and these risks
must be addressed and minimised by urban growers.

Thus, understanding the nutritional quality of urban produce and improving food safety
guidelines for these foods is especially important. More context-specific research is needed
to understand how UA practises can boost nutritional value and produce food that is safe
for citizens.
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CAES1000 Task 3 Report (Semester One, 2020-2021)
Main challenges of urban agriculture

1. Conflicting goals: Profits, employment and value for money

Despite the goals of many UA operations to improve healthy food access in cities, it is
extremely difficult for businesses to do this. The goals of providing quality food to people
at affordable prices, providing jobs and work experience at living wages, and generating a
profit from sales in order to sustain business activities are often contradictory. It is nearly
impossible for for-profit urban farms to meet all of these goals and expectations at once,
and usually one aspect must suffer; for example, many urban farms may market fresh,
high-quality, local produce to middle-high income individuals at slightly higher prices than
one would find in the supermarket in order to gain a profit; in other cases, urban farms may
rely on family, volunteer, or part-time labour in order to keep produce prices at more
affordable levels.

2. Lack of useable land

Commercial urban farmers also face a variety of other challenges, including a lack of
access to useable land. Urban farms and community gardens must compete with residential
and commercial developments for space, and this often proves difficult without public or
governmental support. For countries that are lacking in available urban space, an option
could be the possible use of rooftop gardens, vertical farming, and indoor growing
methods, which could bypass the need for large amounts of land area for urban growing. It
would appear that for densely populated, highly built, and growing cities, the utilisation of
other unused areas, such as rooftops, will be crucial for expanding food production.

3. Operational costs: land, equipment and training

Renting land within the city constitutes a major expense for commercial urban farmers,
thus making it difficult to stay profitable whilst keeping produce prices affordable. Finding
equipment and tools for small-scale production can also be a challenge and buying high-
quality organic compost at affordable prices is difficult, as these products are often sold in
bulk. There is also a lack of training services geared toward urban farmers, many of whom
are often young and inexperienced.

Addressing the challenges

Thus, it becomes apparent that for UA to be successfully implemented, infrastructure and

institutional support on the city, state, and country levels is necessary. Educational food
policy plans detailing best practises regarding food safety, production and marketing
should be developed and promoted to the general public and UA farmers alike. The
potential zoning of specific spaces, especially vacant lots, for UA could be an effective
way of increasing food production in cities. These spaces could have subsidised land rent
prices for urban farmers or community gardens, thus improving the financial sustainability
of UA ventures. Indeed, if urban farms can contribute so significantly to overall public
benefits and the sustainable development of cities, farmers should be rewarded and
supported as caretakers of the land.

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`
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Text 2 - Authored by Schmid, O., Moschi, H., and Dubbel, M. / From a report titled
Governance for urban food systems - recommendations from SUPURBFOOD project /
2016 / Published by Swiss Research Institute of Organic Agriculture / URL:
https://srioa/ifsa/reports/5/5.6%20Schmid.pdf

1. Background of the SUPURBFOOD Project

This paper focuses on reports and a related survey regarding seven SUPURBFOOD
initiatives in case study city regions in Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America. These
projects were designed to promote sustainable modes of urban and peri-urban food
provisioning involving the recycling of nutrients, water and (food) waste, short chain
delivery of food and multifunctional land use.

SUPURBFOOD ran from 2012-2015 and was a project which actively involved Small to
Medium Enterprises (SMEs) such as community farms and specialised wholesalers for
organic and local products. This means that recommendations and a number of best
practices originate from these SMEs. Backed up by a survey among 262 private and public
experts, recommendations are given as to how the governance of urban food systems could
be improved. Altogether 262 persons participated in the survey. There was a good
representation of public administrations (27%), market actors (27%) and Civil Society
organisations (27%), researchers (15%) as well as independent experts (11%).

[Text taken out]

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3.3 Developing multifunctional urban agriculture and land use

The results of the survey related to urban agriculture (UA) and land use are summarised in
Table 1.

Table 1 Three highest-rated questions related to multifunctional UA and

land use On-line survey questions (June-August 2015) Score

1. Local governments should protect and enable access to, and tenure of, land for 4.36
food production in urban and peri-urban areas, e.g. by limiting building projects
on agricultural urban and peri-urban land and renting public areas to farmers,
including cooperatives.
2. Municipal governments should work together to align urban food policies and 4.19
influence relevant regulations (i.e. land use policies) at national and international
levels.
3. Local governments together with gardeners should develop new ways of 4.14
managing urban and allotment gardens, aiming at wider societal functions in
those gardens (e.g. community building, education, nature conservation)

Scale: 5 - very important; 4 - important; 3 - of medium importance; 2 - of little importance;

1 - not at all important

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CAES1000 Task 3 Report (Semester One, 2020-2021)
Examples of best practice

Interesting best practice examples of governmental support for UA are:

- In 2013, Rotterdam changed the zoning designation of a large piece of peri-urban land to
a multifunctional area for education, food production, biodiversity and leisure, managed by
an initiative.

- The Rome (Italy) and Zürich administrations promote farms in their cities with a special
website, allowing citizens to buy directly from city farmers.

- Zürich promotes high biodiversity on 10% of its urban area. The city actively buys land
to protect these spaces from construction and provides incentives for better biodiversity
preservation and organic farming. The department in charge also supports the farms with
investment funds as well as with technical advice.

[Text taken out]

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4. Challenges to UA: Evidence from the SUPURBFOOD Project

The survey and the studies at city level have shown that innovative and flexible governance
and administrative structures are very important to facilitate and support more sustainable
and effective food systems. Different challenges and barriers have to be overcome, as the
city region reports on the SUPURBFOOD Project (2015) revealed.

- For local and regional provisioning of sustainable food several hindering factors exist:
low pressure on policymakers, missing overall city strategy for sustainable food beyond
departments, partly low professionalism of initiatives, high logistic costs for small local
companies, etc.

- There is an insecurity regarding long-term land-use due to the conflicting goals of

productivity and nature conservation among farmers. Additionally, there is competition
between urban gardening groups and traditional allotment gardens (in which state-owned
land is rented to individuals) for land.

5. Key recommendations for implementing urban food systems

In general, the recommendations for improved governance of urban food systems can be
divided into three key fields of action.

First, supporting market development for sustainable and short food supply chains.
Here, a recommendation is to support independent, local specialist food retailers in order to
sustain short food chains. Furthermore, local food markets and food hubs, both physical
and on-line, should be improved and expanded.

Second, providing physical space for public and business initiatives. In particular, it
was seen relevant to protect and enable access to and tenure of land for food production in
urban areas. A stronger collaboration between city administrations dealing with agriculture
and gardening initiatives is needed to find land for cultivation and deal with conflicting
demands for land.
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CAES1000 Task 3 Report (Semester One, 2020-2021)

Third, adapting policies and regulations. Within the regulatory field, the main
recommendations were to review the quality grading and food labelling procedures to
promote public trust in UA food, e.g. developing labels which identify UA farmed foods as
having passed national food safety standards. Furthermore, it was recommended to make
food-growing areas in new or renovated housing settlements and building projects
mandatory.

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Text 3 - Authored by van Tull, E., Hospers, G. J., and van den Berg, L. / From a
journal article titled Opportunities and challenges of urban agriculture for sustainable
city development in a journal titled European Spatial Research and Policy / 2018 /
Volume 25 / Issue 2 / pages 5 to 22 / DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18778/1231-
1952.25.2.01

2.2 Strategic focus, inputs and outputs of urban agriculture

The focus, or main purpose, of individual urban agriculture (UA) outlets differs according
to the type of UA and ranges from urban gardening projects for community construction,
education and/or leisure purposes to professional, often high-tech, farming activities for
commercial purposes. Many combinations are possible with all kinds of side activities, like
food markets and restaurants in addition to gardening opportunities.

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Fig. 2. Urban agriculture in the value chain

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2.5 Urban agriculture and economic development

2.5.1 Research and development initiatives

UA offers economic benefits for cities in various ways. Firstly, UA is important for
research, and knowledge development (see Figure 2), with many high-tech urban farms
functioning as pilots for new (indoor) vertical growing technologies. Therefore, various
urban farms have research and development labs on site – such as the Science Barge in
New York, a floating greenhouse and UA educational centre on the Hudson River – or they
are linked with knowledge institutes, like UrbanFarmers AG in Basel, Switzerland, a
company that designs, finances and operates urban farms as well as UA software and
aquaponic systems.

2.5.2 Urban agriculture and design innovation

Secondly, as illustrated in Figure 2, such UA research and development strategies (input)

may lead to the development of new products and markets (output). For instance,
UrbanFarmers AG expanded its activities to the Netherlands in 2016, where it opened
Europe’s largest commercial urban farm. Similar operations not only provide fresh food at
affordable prices, but also other products, including new growing technologies and closed
loop systems. Therefore, it is no coincidence that various urban farms sell not only
vegetables, but also high-tech farming technologies, e.g. AeroFarms (Newark), and Future
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CAES1000 Task 3 Report (Semester One, 2020-2021)
Growing LCC (San Francisco) have set up ‘vertical farms’ as ‘demonstration plants’ to
promote new technologies.

2.5.3 Social development opportunities

Thirdly, UA may offer potential for recreational, tourist and marketing purposes (see
Figure 2). Many urban farms are open for the public, and organise tours, and as such, they
could be compared to other tourist attractions. Finally, in the real estate sector, UA is
sometimes seen as a promotion and marketing tool to increase property values and create
shared values with local stakeholders. For instance, in Amsterdam, a real estate developer
has invested in a large rooftop garden on a former department store to be used for
recreation and food-production. The aim is to add more economic value to the building,
while also contributing to social development.

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3.2 Challenges of urban agriculture

3.2.1 Potential contaminants in food produced in urban settings

Despite its potential for sustainable city development, there are several weak points
concerning UA. Firstly, it can be argued that UA is not as healthy and fresh as expected.
Due to air pollution in cities, there are health risks concerning ‘urban vegetables’ that may
contain high concentrations of heavy metals. Similarly, it has been argued that new soilless
growing technologies such as ‘aquaponics’ systems lead to ‘artificial food’ that lacks
sufficient natural nutrients.

3.2.2 Legal requirements: Land use and food safety

Furthermore, UA may lead to conflicts with other urban functions, such as living and
working. There can be a lack of sufficient and suitable land for agricultural activities in
cities, and whenever space is found for it, UA may cause negative consequences, such as
air pollution (e.g. odour from livestock), or overcharging the city’s energy grid.

Moreover, and related to the previous point, UA may be hindered by legal constraints and
governance conflicts. Zoning policies and certification have an impact on all aspects of UA,
including production, infrastructure, marketing, and access to inputs. In general, food safety
standard certification is seen as an important constraint on farming in cities, which explains
why many urban farmers focus on the social dimension of UA rather than producing for the
market.

3.2.3 High operational costs

Finally, UA requires large investments to cover high operational costs, including the costs
of the infrastructure, energy, and management. Therefore, it may be hard for beginner urban
farmers to generate sufficient income. Vertical farming in buildings in particular leads to
high energy costs, making it difficult to compete with traditional outdoor farming in regions
with a better climate. Whilst UA offers economic potential, the degree of commercial success
often depends on how much financial support is available.

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All in all, the success of UA is far from guaranteed. There are limitations to the concept
creating challenges for cities that intend to invest in it. UA is hindered by a variety of
economic, spatial, functional, organisational, and institutional challenges. These challenges
might be hard to overcome, especially when cities strive for an integrated approach
towards UA.
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Text 4 – Authored by Grebitus, C. and Prince, I. / From a journal article titled

Relationship between consumer behaviour and success of urban agriculture in a journal
titled Ecological Economics / 2017 / Volume 136 / pages 189 to 200 /
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.02.010

1. Consumer interest in locally grown food

In the USA, there has been a considerable increase in consumer interest in locally grown
food, such as vegetables and meat sold at farmers’ markets and community farms. Due to
this change in consumer behaviour, many national grocers, such as Kroger and Whole
Foods, have begun to partner with local farmers to offer locally grown products at their
stores. The purchasing power of these national chains means that they can offer locally
grown food at reduced prices, which may not be good news for competing urban
agriculture (UA) producers, who often sell directly to the public. UA farmers therefore
need to understand what drives consumers to purchase produce at the farm in order to
effectively and efficiently market their products. Knowing more about key motivations
might also enable stakeholders to increase the share of citizens that take part in urban
agriculture.

[Text taken out]

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5. Empirical results

5.1 Perceptions of urban agriculture

The objective of our study is to understand success factors of urban agriculture

participation in terms of purchasing and growing. In this regard, we focus particularly on
the future consumers, Generation Y, otherwise known as Millennials. Specifically, 325
students at Arizona State University took part in the survey. The sample consisted of 38%
female and 62% male respondents with an average age of 22 years.

Our findings demonstrate that a positive perception of urban farms is based on food
attributes related to product quality, such as being “safe to eat” and “healthy”. Overall, the
findings show that whilst UA farming is generally viewed positively, not all consumers
may be in favour of urban agriculture due to the perception that UA food is more expensive
than supermarket produce. Additionally, negative aspects such as “inconvenience” and “a
waste of time and energy” were also mentioned by several respondents.

[Text taken out]

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5.5 Attitudes towards reasons that prevent or encourage purchases from urban farms

We investigated attitudes towards reasons that prevent or encourage consumers to purchase

produce from urban farms. Results show that freshness, health, taste and support of the
environment and local economy are main reasons that encourage consumers to shop at
urban farms. At the same time, distance travelled and time commitment would prevent
them from buying at urban farms.

[Text taken out]

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6. Main factors affecting consumers’ perceptions of urban agriculture

Urban agriculture offers direct access to local food, a promising opportunity, considering
that local food continues to be very popular. Consumers believe that local food is fresher,
of higher quality, tastes better, enhances the local economy and benefits the environment.
Our findings support this with evidence showing that a positive perception of urban farms
is based on food attributes that are part of product quality, such as being safe to eat and
being healthy.

6.1 Addressing concerns through consumer education

In addition to consumer perception of urban agriculture, we investigated the role of

subjective knowledge and attitudes as factors that affect intentions towards UA. Our
findings show that consumers in general do not feel knowledgeable regarding urban
agriculture, which could indicate that consumer education towards urban agriculture might
increase the success of urban farms. This, for example, could be achieved via community
centers where classes on nutrition and gardening for different ages could be offered.

Results regarding attitudes indicate that consumers generally have a positive attitude
towards urban agriculture and that the reasons that prevent them from using those farms as
UA shopping outlets are mainly associated with cost and inconvenience. Indeed, it has to
be acknowledged that cost and inconvenience are considerable obstacles for shoppers.
However, given that prices at urban farms are not necessarily higher and, could in some
cases actually be lower compared to those in other retail outlets, it might be that consumers
misunderstand this aspect of UA food. This suggests that stakeholders (e.g., the farmers)
might want to provide up to date information about competitive pricing.

Also, if convenience is seen as an obstacle, stakeholders could counteract this by

highlighting that growing your own produce is associated with being outdoors, being active
and becoming more involved with food production, all of which are benefits to the
individual given that most lifestyles nowadays are sedentary.

6.2 Promoting urban agriculture to future consumers

Our data indicate that consumers who feel more knowledgeable would go to urban farms to
purchase produce and are also more likely to grow their own produce. One can argue that
this might be because they are more likely to trust their decision on this produce outlet.
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CAES1000 Task 3 Report (Semester One, 2020-2021)
Looking at the socio-demographic characteristics, the main result is that women are more
likely to grow their own produce, and the same holds for an increase in age. This indicates
that strategies that target males, younger consumers, and families with kids might help
increase the numbers of people participating in urban agriculture.

To conclude, it seems vital to include young consumers when it comes to promoting

sustainability. The activities that are encouraging the next generations to consume
responsibly will have to provide practical solutions that show that sustainable consumption
is manageable and convenient in order to change the young consumers' behaviour.

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CAES1000 – Citation and Referencing Style Guide (APA format) [Version August 2020]
In CAES1000, you will be introduced to the APA (American Psychological Association) style of citation and referencing which you can use in all your
CAES1000 assignments.

You should note that different faculties use different citation and referencing styles. CAES1000 students come from all 10 faculties in the university and
we do not aim to teach all different styles within one course. To ensure standardization in assessment and marking in CAES1000, you should follow the
APA style which is commonly used in the Common Core curriculum. In your second year or beyond, you will take an English-in-the-Discipline course with
CAES and in that course you will be introduced to a specific style which can be used in your major. Please ask your faculty and your Common Core course
teachers which style you should use in the assignments you write for their courses.

CITATIONS

Citation Type Example

Single author (Format 1: Integral citation)
Author’s surname (year of publication)
e.g. Smith (2007) found that air pollution levels have risen.
Joint authors (Format 1: Integral citation for two authors)
Author A’s surname and Author B’s surname (year of
publication)
e.g. Biber and Cortes (2004) define…
One source
(Integral citation for three or more authors)
(Author A’ surname followed by et al., year of publication)
e.g. Chan et al. (2009) argue…
Single author (Format 2: Non-integral citation)
(Author’s surname, year of publication)
e.g. Statistics show that air pollution levels have risen sharply (Smith, 2007).
Joint authors (Format 2: Non-integral citation for two authors)
(Author A’s surname & Author B’s surname, year of publication)
e.g. Rapid population growth has worsened the water quality in Victoria Harbour
(Tong & Lee, 2014).
(Non-integral citation for three or more authors)
(Author A’s surname followed by et al., year of publication)
e.g. Air pollution levels have risen drastically (Wong et al., 2011).

• Use the word "and" between the authors' surnames
within the text in a work by two authors.
• In a work by multiple authors (three or above), use the
first author's surname followed by “et al.” in the text
right from the first citation.
• Use the ampersand (&) in the parentheses in a work by two authors.
• In a work by multiple authors (three or above), use the first author's surname
followed by “et al.” in the parentheses right from the first citation.

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CAES1000 Task 3 Report (Semester One, 2020-2021)
Citation Type Example
• If the author is an organization, replace the author’s surname with the full name (not the abbreviation) of the organization. If the organization
has a well-known abbreviation, include the abbreviation in brackets the first time the source is cited and then use only the abbreviation in
later citations. e.g. First citation: “The World Health Organization (WHO, 2008) issued…” in integral citation and “… (World Health
Organization [WHO], 2008)” in non-integral citation. Subsequent citations: (WHO, 2008).
• If the author is unknown, replace the author’s surname with the first few words of the article title enclosed in double quotation marks e.g. ”The
Global Credit Squeeze” (2008) in integral citation and (“The Global Credit Squeeze”, 2008) in non-integral citation.
More than one source (Author A’s surname, year of publication; Author B’s surname, year of publication)
This is when you e.g. Recent studies (Adams, 2011; Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department, 2012; Smith & Brown, 2007) show that air pollution levels
synthesize information have risen dramatically in most developed countries.
from multiple sources. • Inside the citation brackets, arrange the author’s surnames in alphabetical order (Not by the order of the year of publication).
With a direct Author’s surname (year of publication) (page number when available at the end of the sentence)
quotation e.g. As Baxter and Baker (2007) note, the birth rate has been in "rapid decline" (p. 20).

(Author’s surname, year of publication, page number when available)

e.g. …the birth rate has been in “rapid decline” (Baxter & Baker, 2007, p. 20).
• Put double quotation marks around the direct quotation.
A secondary citation Author referred to in text (year of publication, as cited in Author’s surname [of the text you read], year of publication)
This is when you cite a e.g. Johnson (1997, as cited in Smith, 2000) argues that…
source that was • If you use a secondary citation, you should only write a reference for the source that you read.
mentioned in another • In the example above, Smith cited Johnson’s work. You have read Smith but you have not read Johnson. You want to cite Johnson’s ideas. In
source. the reference list, Smith, not Johnson, should be referenced.

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REFERENCES
List references in alphabetical order according to author (i.e. according to the first author’s surname, or the name of the authoring
organization, or the article title if author is unknown). The reference list should be labelled as “References”. It should be capitalized, in bold, and
placed in the centre. All entries on the reference list should be double-spaced. Use a hanging indent for all references.

Type Example
Book Author’s surname, Author’s initials. (Year of publication). Title of book. Publisher. DOI1 (if available)
e.g. Stewart, B., Kwok, A., & Chan, J. (2016). Handbook of psychology. John Wiley.
• If a source has more than one author, then reference it as follows: Author A’s surname, Author A’s initials., Author B’s
surname, Author B’s initials., & Author C’s surname, Author C’s initials. (Year of publication)…etc.
e.g. Smith, C., Jones, T., & Chan, W. (2012). China’s strategic role in Asia. HKU Press.
• List the authors in the original order from the book or journal article (NOT in alphabetical order).
• List surnames and initials for up to 20 authors.
• Italicize the book titles.
• “et al.” is not used in references but in in-text citations only.
• Include a DOI if available.
Edited book Author’s surname, Author’s initials. (Year of publication). Title of chapter. In Editor’s initials. Editor’s surname (Ed.), Title of
chapter book (page numbers). Publisher. DOI (if available)
e.g. Ma, K. (2000). Is genetic engineering ethical? In H. Brown (Ed.), Ethics in science (pp. 82-96). Oxford University Press.
https://doi.org/12.1087/983-90-382-2
• Write (Ed.) for ONE editor and (Eds.) for TWO or MORE editors.
• Include page numbers for edited books and journal articles.
• Include (pp.) before the page numbers for edited books only. Place the editor’s initials before the editor’s surname.
• Italicize the book titles.
• Include a DOI if available.

1 DOI refers to Digital Object Identifier.

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Journal article Author’s surname, Author’s initials. (Year of publication). Title of article. Title of Journal, Volume Number (Issue Number)
when available, Page numbers. DOI (if available)
e.g. Wong, S. (2009). Public housing: The case for and against. Hong Kong Journal of Real Estate, 71(3), 145-176.
e.g. Rayson, F., & Frost, J. (2000). A study of digital literacies in pre-school children in Vietnam. Educational Technology Journal,
22(1), 1-9.
• Include page numbers for journal articles.
• Do NOT add (pp.) for page range of journal articles in the reference list [but p. or pp. is included anyway for in-text citation].
• Italicize the name of the journal and the volume number (NOT the issue number).
• For journal titles, follow the capitalisation as they are published.
• Include a DOI if available.
Report Author’s surname, Author’s initials. (Year of publication). Title of report. Publisher. DOI or URL (if available)
e.g. Hong Kong Department of Housing. (2011). Public housing for the needy. Hong Kong Department of Housing.
• If the author is an organization, replace the author’s surname and initials with the full name (not the abbreviation) of the
organization.
• Italicize the report titles.
• Include a DOI or URL if available.
Web page Author’s surname, Author’s initials. (Year, Date of publication). Title of web page. Website URL
(excluding online e.g. American Heart Association. (2009, October 29). Learn your levels. http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.html
news/ magazine e.g. World Health Organization. (2018, March). 5 keys to a healthy diet.
articles) https://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/5keys_healthydiet/en/
• Italicize the webpage titles.
Web page which is Online dictionaries: Author’s surname, Author’s initials. (n.d). Title of web page. Retrieved DATE, from website URL
designed to be e.g. Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved May 5, 2019, from
updated https://www.merriamwebster.com/
(excluding online
news/ Social media pages: Author’s surname, Author’s initials. (n.d.). Title of web page [Description of media type]. Title of
magazine articles) platform. Retrieved DATE, from website URL
e.g. Centre for Applied English Studies. (n.d.). Home [Facebook page]. Facebook. Retrieved July 22, 2019, from
https://www.facebook.com/hku.caes/
• 'Retrieved …, from' is required for web pages that are likely to be updated or changed, such as online dictionary entries
or social media pages.
• For such pages, it is common that the exact publication date is unknown. For works with no known publication date,
write “n.d.” (“no date”) in brackets.
• The date also appears as “n.d.” in the corresponding in-text citation.
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CAES1000 Task 3 Report (Semester One, 2020-2021)

e.g. (Centre for Applied English Studies, n.d.) or Centre for Applied English Studies (n.d.)
News/magazine Author’s surname, Author’s initials. (Year, Date of publication). Title of article. Title of Newspaper/Magazine. Article URL
article (ONLINE e.g. Brown, S. (2011, March 2). Snow brings European airports to a standstill. The New York Times.
version with known http://www.nytimes.com/20110302
author)

News/magazine Author’s surname, Author’s initials. (Year, Date of publication). Title of article. Title of Newspaper/Magazine, Page numbers
article (PRINT when available.
version with known e.g. Lamb, J. (2010, October 30). HKMA data shows hard times are ahead. South China Morning Post, p. 3.
author)

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CAES1000 Task 3 Report (Semester One, 2020-2021)
Important Notes:
• When referring to books, chapters, or webpages, capitalize only the first letter of the first word of a title and subtitle, the first word after a colon
or a dash in the title, and proper nouns. Do NOT capitalise the first letter of all the words in the book or article title.
e.g. Law, K. (2016). Peer assessment in second language learning: Challenges and opportunities. Bloomsbury.

• Do not include publisher location.

• Include a DOI if available.
• If the author is unknown, replace the author’s surname with the first few words of the article title in the references e.g. The Global Credit Squeeze,
(2008).
• If you have to cite the same source multiple times in your text, note the following rules:
All non-integral citations should include the year, regardless of how often they appear in a paragraph.

e.g. It is expected that 50% of the ice in the arctic regions will melt within 30 years (Black & White, 2017). The rise in sea level because
of this will threaten many coastal cities (Black & White, 2017).
For integral citations, after the first citation in each paragraph, you need not include the year in subsequent integral citations as long as the
study will not be confused with other studies in the article.
e.g. Black and White (2017) forecast that 50% of the ice in the arctic regions will melt within 30 years. Black and White further
predicted that the rise in sea level because of this will threaten many coastal cities.

For more information, please consult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, (7th ed.) or the APA
webpage https://apastyle.apa.org/.

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