English for Academic Purposes I (2021) L09 – The Importance of Referencing

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L09 – The Importance of Referencing

(with APA 7th edition updates)
Acknowledging your sources is crucial in honest academic work. There is more than one
referencing style, and the one you choose should depend on the conventions within your
discipline, the course requirements and your Lecturer’s advice.

Why are there so many different citation styles?

Different fields have designed citation styles to meet their special needs. In some Sciences,
for instance, proper citations list only the author, journal and pages. They omit the article’s
title. But in the Humanities or Social Sciences, proper citations require the article’s title.
Compare the following bibliographic citations for the same article:

APA Lipson, C. (1991). Why are some international agreements informal?

International Organization, 45, 495-538.

Chicago Lipson, Charles. “Why Are Some International Agreements Informal?”

International Organization 45 (Autumn 1991): 495-538.

ACS Lipson, C. Int. Org. 1991, 45, 495.

Despite their differences, all these citation styles have the same basic goals:
 to identify and credit the sources you use by demonstrating clearly where you have
borrowed ideas from; and

 to provide readers with sufficient information to enable them to consult the source
materials for themselves, if they wish.

Fortunately, the different styles include a lot of the same information. That means you can
write down the same things as you take notes, without worrying about what kind of
citations you will ultimately use. You should write down that information as soon as you
start taking notes on a new book or article. If you photocopy an article, write all the
reference information on the first page. If you do it first, you won’t forget. You’ll need it later
for citations.

Tips: Check with your teachers in each class to find out which citation style they prefer.
Then, use that style consistently.

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APA Referencing Style

One of the most common formats for documenting sources is that of the American
Psychological Association – APA style. This format is widely used for course papers and
journal articles in psychology, but also in many other disciplines such as education,
engineering, business, and both the social and natural sciences. One of the main features of
APA format is the prominence its citations give to the source’s publication year, which comes
immediately after the author’s name. In fields where new theories and discoveries are
constantly challenging past assumptions, readers must know if a writer’s sources are
up-to-date, or whether the research came before or after other research.

APA style requires both in-text citations and a reference list. For every in-text citation there
should be a full citation in the reference list and vice versa.

In-Text Citations
When using APA format, you should follow the author-date method of in-text citation. This
means that the author's last name and the year of publication for the source should appear
in the text. In lesson 11 of IAE, you have learnt the difference between ‘integral reference’
and ‘non-integral reference’. Which of the following example belongs to ‘integral reference’?
 Jones (1998) agrees that APA style is a difficult citation format for first-time users.
 APA style is a difficult citation format for first-time users (Jones, 1998).

Important rules
Works by a single author
The last name of the author and the year of publication are used.
…… patterns of behaviour (Stevens, 1987)

Stevens (1987) suggested that ……

Works by multiple authors

When a work has two authors, always cite both names every time the reference occurs in the text.
In parenthetical material join the names with an ampersand “&”.
…… has been shown (Smith & Thompson, 1998).
In the narrative text, join the names with the word “and.”
Smith and Thompson (1998) demonstrated that ……

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When a work has three or more authors, list only the surname of the first author followed by
“et al.” (Latin for “and others”) and the year of publication.
Harris et al. (1991) argued that ……

When multiple works with similar groups of authors are cited, and the shortened “et al.” citation
form of each source would be the same, it would be better to avoid ambiguity by writing out
more names, such as in the following examples
Jones, Liu, Huang, and Kim (2020) >> (Jones, Liu, et al., 2020)

Jones, Ruiz, Wang, and Stanton (2020) >> (Jones, Ruiz, et al., 2020)

 Don’t use: (Jones et al., 2020)

Works by associations, corporations, government agencies, etc.

The names of groups that serve as authors are usually written out each time they appear in a text
reference.
(National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2007)
The names of some corporate authors are spelled out in the first reference and abbreviated in all
subsequent citations. The general rule for abbreviating in this manner is to supply enough
information in the text citation for a reader to locate its source in the Reference List without
difficulty.
(NIMH, 2007)

Electronic Resources without Publication Date

If no date is given, use the abbreviation “n.d.” (for “no date”).
Another study of students and research decisions discovered that students
succeeded with tutoring (Smith, n.d.).

Citing Indirect Sources

If you use a source that was cited in another source, name the original source in your signal
phrase. List the secondary source in your reference list and include the secondary source in the
parentheses.
Johnson argued that …… (as cited in Smith, 2003).

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Task 1 – Using In-text Citations
Are the following in-text citations correct? Why or why not? or 
1. "Austin (2017) argued that … …"
Situation: The book is written by Austin Williamson.
2. … … … … … (Austin, Bennett and Claire, 2017).
Situation: The book is written by A. Austin, J. Bennett and M. Claire.
3. "Peterson et al. (2017) argued that … …"
Situation: The journal article has six authors.
4. "Peterson et al. (no date) argued that … …"
Situation: The web article does not provide a publication date.
5. "Peterson & Williamson (2017) argued that … …"
Situation: The book has two authors, E. Peterson and A. Williamson.
6. "Peterson et al. (2017) argued that … …"
Situation: The book has two authors, E. Peterson and A. Williamson.

7. If the only way to cite a source is through a secondary source citation, which of the
following citations is correct? [Assume that Patten refers to the author of the book
you read, whereas Leung refers to the author quoted by Patten.]
A. (Leung, 2015, as cited in Patten, 2016)
B. (Leung, as cited in Patten, 2016)
C. (Patten, 2016)
D. (Leung, 2015)

The Proper Use of “et al.” in APA Style

Name of authors Year In-text citations

Peter Palmer, Tony Roy 2008 8.

Alfred Wegener, Lucy Liu,

2007 9.
Aaron Jay Kernis

Ben Mendelsohn 2010 10.

Remember:
The abbreviation “et al.” is used in in-text citations BUT NOT in the reference list.

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Direct Quotation
In researching your topic, you will read and absorb a lot of information. You will probably
paraphrase and cite the selected information, or combine it to form original ideas. But
sometimes you may want to quote an original source. Some examples of direct quotations
are shown below. All of them are in correct APA Style, citing the author, year, and page
number (*for online sources where page numbers are not applicable, use paragraph
numbers; never use the page numbers of web pages you print out, as different computers
print web pages with different pagination).

In general, most of your paper should be in your own words. Use direct quotations only if
you have a good reason. You should quote ……
 if it is a definition of a key term or phrase.
 if the quote is particularly well-known
 if the quote is to be analysed, such as in a literary analysis paper.
In comparison, you should paraphrase when what you want from the source is the idea
expressed, but not the specific language used to express it.

Group Task – Quotations or Paraphrases

Get into your group and study the following extracts from student essays. Your
job is to revise these extracts by adding the evidence collected by the students.
You need to decide where to insert the evidence. You also need to decide
whether direct quotations (or paraphrases) should be used. You have 15
minutes to complete this task. After that, your lecturer will invite 2 (or more) groups to
show their answers on the screen and justify them.

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Extracts from student essays Evidence collected

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Extract from a student essay Evidence collected

Task 2 30 / 40 / 50 / author’s surname /

Fill in the following blanks with the words provided in bibliography / page number(s) /
the box. Some words can be used more than once. reference list / year
1. A ____________________ consists of all sources cited in the text of a paper, listed
alphabetically by author’s surname.
2. A ____________________ may include resources that were consulted but not cited
in the text.
3. Material quoted directly from another source (i.e., reproduced word for word from
works by other authors) must always provide the (i)____________________, year,
and specific (ii)___________________ in the text citation and include a complete
entry in the (iii)____________________. If the quotation includes fewer than
(iv)____________________ words, incorporate it in text and enclose it with
quotation marks. If the quotation includes (v)____________________ words or more,
it should be treated as a block quotation, meaning that it is displayed in a
freestanding block of text without quotation marks. If material is paraphrased (i.e.,
restated in your own words), always provide the author’s surname and
(vi)__________________ in the in-text citation. It is not necessary to include the
(vii)___________________ in the citation.

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APA Reference List Note the use of italics

Book (one author)
Last Name, Initial(s). (Year of Publication). Title of book (edition). Name of Publisher.

Mitchell, J. (1982). The mythos of homosexuality (2nd ed.). Express Publishers.

Book (two authors)

Frank, R. H., & Bernanke, B. (2007). Principles of macro-economics (3rd ed.). McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Edited Book
Gibbs, J. T., & Huang, L. N. (Eds.). (2001). Children of color: Psychological interventions
with culturally diverse youth. Jossey-Bass.

Article or Chapter in an Edited Book

Last Name, Initial(s). (Year of Publication). Title of article or book chapter. In Initials(s)., Last Name
(Eds.), Title of book (page numbers). Name of Publisher.

Bond, V. (1980). The psychology of life: Working with blended families. In J. Wynn, Jr., M.
White, & M. Boat (Eds.), Family psychology (pp. 27-36). Brooks.

Government Document
National Institute of Mental Health. (1990). Clinical training in serious mental illness.
Government Printing Office.

Thesis or Dissertation from a database

Last Name, Initial(s). (Year of Publication). Title of dissertation or thesis (Publication No.) [Doctoral
dissertation or master’s thesis, Name of Institution]. Database Name.

Duis, J. M. (2008). Acid/base chemistry and related organic chemistry conceptions of

undergraduate organic chemistry students. (Publication No. 3348786) [Doctoral
dissertation, University of Northern Colorado]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses
Global.

This is called the “hanging indent”. The first line of your reference will line up with
the left margin and each line after will be indented one-half inch from the left
margin.

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Include the issue number for all journals that have issue numbers.
Scholarly Journal Article
Last Name, Initial(s) (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number(issue number), page
numbers. https://doi.org/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Anderson, A. K. (2005). Affective influences on the attentional dynamics supporting

awareness. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 134(2), 258–281.
https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.134.2.258

Conference Proceedings
If a conference paper has been published (for example, in a proceedings), the published form is
usually either a chapter of an edited book or an article in a journal. Cite it according to the
appropriate pattern.
 Proceedings published in book form normally have the title of the specific conference as
the title of the book, and have editors.
Author, A. A. (Date). Title of paper. In A. Editor & B. Editor (Eds.), Title of proceedings (page
numbers). Publisher. DOI OR URL if relevant.

 Proceedings published in journal form might be a special issue of the organising body's
regular journal, or a special periodical series may exist to host the conference papers. The
presence of volume and issue numbers can help with identifying these.
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number(issue
number), page numbers of the whole article. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/xxxx

* For updates to APA style, consult the association’s website: http://www.apastyle.org/

Task 3
Write a list of references (in alphabetical order) for an essay from the information given
below.
 An article by Robert Cooper called: What do we learn when we learn a language? It was
published in 2007 in the journal: TESOL Quarterly. It is on pages 303-314 in volume 4.
 Someone called Andy Gillett wrote this web page, which is very useful, and he worked at the
University of Hertfordshire. It was published on May 6th last year. The title is: Using English
for Academic purposes. The URL is http://www.uefap.com/

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 This small book is called: learning purpose and language use. It was written by Henry George
Williamson and published in 1993. Like all his books it was published in Oxford by Oxford
University Press.
 This newspaper article was written by Jane Martinson in New York. The title of the article is:
“Microsoft faces defining moment”, and it was in the Guardian (newspaper) on November
6th, 2009. The URL is https://www.theguardian.com/xxxxx
 An article in the journal: Applied linguistics. It was written in 1985 by E. Bianchi and M.
Eastwood. The title of the article is: An evaluation of the construct for second-language
acquisition. It was published in volume 6 and it is from page 101 to page 117.
 A very important book written in 2016 by W. F. Mackey. It was called: Language teaching
analysis. It was published in London by Longman.

References All entries in the reference list should be arranged

in alphabetical order by authors' last names.
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