What the guide covers
- Teesside University, School of Health and Life Sciences referencing Style
- What is referencing?
- Why you need to reference
- Referencing a book
- Referencing a journal
- Referencing a website
- The Reference List
- Video: Part 1 (What referencing is; How to construct basic references; The reference list)
- In-text citations
- When to include a reference
- Paraphrasing and Quotations
- Video: Part 2 (Paraphrasing; Using in-text citations)
- Quiz
- Useful resources
Teesside University, School of Health and Life Sciences referencing Style
The referencing style used in the School of Health and Life Sciences at Teesside University is Harvard Standard according to the book 'Cite Them Right' by Pears and Shields.
Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2022) Cite them right: the essential referencing guide. 12th edn. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
What is referencing?
Identifying and listing all the sources you have referred to in your assignment.
There are 2 parts to this: in text citations and the reference list.
Citing in the text looks like this: Godwin (2019, p. 17) / (Godwin, 2019, p. 17)
A reference at the end of your assignment looks like this : Godwin, J. (2019) Planning your essay. 3rd edn. London: Macmillan Education.
So, why reference?
You need to learn how to reference accurately in order to acknowledge your sources and to demonstrate that your writing is based on evidence.
Referencing enables the reader to easily locate the sources used.
It demonstrates the body of knowledge on which your work is based.
You must reference correctly to avoid accusations of plagiarism (accidental plagiarism can happen if you don't reference properly).
This short tutorial goes through the basics of why it is important to include references in your work.
General tips when referencing
When there are more than 3 authors you only need to write the first one followed by et al. This is the case for the in-text citation as well as the reference list.
When using an abbreviation, it is usually best practice to explain what the abbreviation stands for, the first time you use it and then you can use the abbreviated form afterwards. Make sure whatever you have used in the in-text citation matches your reference list. For example:
As the research from the World Health Organization (WHO, 2023) shows …
WHO (2023) Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/chronic-obstructive-pulmonary-disease-(copd) (Accessed: 24 July 2024).
For more information, please read the referencing guide:
The main types of references you will include in your work will be from books, journals and websites.
Books
Generally, you will reference an e-book in the same way as you would reference a printed book (i.e. there is no need for a web address/URL or database name)
Book reference with up to 3 authors
Book reference with more than 3 authors
This is what a chapter from an edited book would look like (this is when the chapters are written by different authors).
Chapter from an edited book
Journals
Journal article with 3 authors
Journal article with more than 3 authors
Websites
The reference list
- Includes everything referred to in the text. If you have an in-text citation, there should be a corresponding reference at the end of your work.
- Make notes as you are writing your assignment so you know where your reference comes from.
- References need to be listed alphabetically by author.
- Give yourself time to check everything including spelling and page numbers.
- Make sure it is complete and includes all the required information.
Video: Part 1
In-text Citations
- These go in the text of your work
- In-text citations give the brief (abbreviated) details of the work that you are quoting from, or to which you are referring in your text.
- You only need to include the author's surname (family name), the year, and page number if you are referring to a specific page or pages e.g. (Godwin, 2019, p. 17).
- This format is the same regardless of whether the source is a book, journal article or website.
- If you are quoting or using ideas from a specific page/page range, you should include the page numbers in the citation (p. or pp.)
- If the citation refers to a complete work/ideas that run throughout a complete work, then you do not need to include the page numbers in the citation.
There are 2 ways to cite in the text:
- Passive citations: When the the author is not part of the sentence so both the author's name, the year and page number go in brackets at the end of the sentence, e.g. (Norman, 2012, p.13).
- Active citations: When the author is part of the sentence, so the year goes into brackets, e.g. "Norman (2012, p.13) states that ..."
There are advantages and disadvantages to both ways. You should try and use both ways in your writing.
Passive Citations
(Norman, 2012, p.13)
- Emphasises the information
- Positive: can help your assignment to flow
- Negative: references can sometimes appear too far away from the point
Active citations
As Norman (2012, p.13) argued ...
- Emphasises the author
- Positive: good for introducing reference early in a paragraph
- Negative: can reduce the impact of your points
- Negative: can become repetitive
Whichever way you choose, ensure that you use the correct wording to show your viewpoint.
Wording for viewpoints
The words you choose to use can indicate how much you agree with the viewpoint of the author. Vary these words to show these points – it will help with developing your case or argument in your assignment.
Academic Phrasebank is a really useful website to help you with you academic vocabulary.
This short tutorial goes through the basics of how to use in-text citations:
Have a look at these incorrect in-text citations and see if you can spot the mistakes:
- According to (Smith, 2007), there is no strong evidence ….
- According to Smith, 2009, there is little evidence ….
- Fred Smith (2010) argued that there was little evidence ….
- In her book ‘Writing for University’, Godfrey (2011) advised …
This is how we would have used the in-text citations for those sentence starters:
- According to Smith (2007), there is no strong evidence ….
- According to Smith (2009), there is little evidence ….
- Smith (2010) argued that there was little evidence ….
- Godfrey (2011) advised …
Where the author is part of the sentence, the date needs to be in the brackets but the author's surname goes outside of the brackets.
Only the author’s surname and the date need to be included in your citations - you don't need to include the details of the book or journal, as you will put that in your reference list.
Please note: In these examples we haven’t added page numbers as they may be referring to webpages or to whole studies.
A comparative study on properties built within the last twenty years and older houses, clearly illustrated the financial and environmental benefits of investing time and money in improving home insulation. A recent survey and video underlined that as much as a third of the heat generated in homes is lost through the walls or the roof as a result of poor insulation.
This paragraph does need in-text citations, as it is based on evidence and research from other people - it clearly refers to a comparative study a survey and a video but does not give any information about what they are or how the reader would find them.
So, here's where we would have put the in-text citations:
A comparative study conducted by Bowman and Jenkins (2011), on properties built within the last twenty years and older houses, clearly illustrated the financial and environmental benefits of investing time and money in improving home insulation. A recent survey (Thermascan, 2012) and video (Norman, 2012) underlined that as much as a third of the heat generated in homes is lost through the walls or the roof as a result of poor insulation.
Only use quotes for selected phrases where you can’t think of an alternative, or where the author has expressed it in a particularly effective way.
You should not take lots of text and put it in assignment with quotation marks and reference it as that does not show you have understood the meaning and importance of the content.
There are 2 methods to help you with paraphrasing:
- Understand, Hide, Write, Check
- A systematic approach where you use synonyms; swap the order of the content; use opposites and find related words
There is a handout which goes through the 2 methods for paraphrasing in more detail here:
Read this paragraph and think about how you could paraphrase it....
Students invest a great deal of time, energy and money in their education so success at university or at college is usually very important to them. There are many different versions of what that success would look like.
Taken from: Cottrell (2019, p. 11)
Here are 4 possible answers:
Paraphrased:
Students spend a lot of money on their university courses so they need to do well, which means they are keen to make sure they obtain a good degree.
Original:
Students invest a great deal of time, energy and money in their education so success at university or at college is usually very important to them. There are many different versions of what that success would look like.
What we thought:
We didn't think this was a good example of paraphrasing. It misrepresents the meaning of the original, which doesn’t say they want to get a good degree, it says that success is different for different people.
Paraphrased:
Students spend a great deal of time, energy and money in their university education, so success is usually very important, but there are many versions of what success looks like.
Original:
Students invest a great deal of time, energy and money in their education so success at university or at college is usually very important to them. There are many different versions of what that success would look like.
What we thought:
We didn't think this was very good at all and could be a case for plagiarism as it is too close to original. Only a couple of words have been changed. The key phrase ‘great deal of time, energy and money’ has remained unchanged.
Paraphrased:
Students advance many hours, vigour and currency in their universities so success is habitually very imperative to them. However, there are many altered styles of what that success would bear a resemblance to.
Original:
Students invest a great deal of time, energy and money in their education so success at university or at college is usually very important to them. There are many different versions of what that success would look like.
What we thought:
This is not a good example of paraphrasing either. There is a heavy reliance on using the synonym function on Word which has led to sentences which don’t make sense. It is not plagiarised but it is also not easy to understand. This would not get good feedback on academic writing style.
Paraphrased:
Students want to succeed at university, to justify all the effort and expense that they have spent on their education. But they do not all view what it means to succeed in the same way.
Original:
Students invest a great deal of time, energy and money in their education so success at university or at college is usually very important to them. There are many different versions of what that success would look like.
What we thought:
This example is ok and has used some techniques from the systematic approach to paraphrasing.
- Note that first sentence has been swapped round so it starts with students wanting to succeed, then talks about effort made.
- In the second sentence and opposite has been used - 'different versions' has been changed to 'not all view'.
- Sensible synonyms have been used -time, energy and money have been changed to effort and expense.
- A related word has been used - success changed to succeed.
Your Turn
Have a go at paraphrasing this paragraph:
As a student, only part of your week and year will be formally timetabled. You are responsible for organising most of your study time for yourself.
Adapted from Cottrell (2019, p. 123)
See the Harvard Referencing reading list for the references used in this guide.
Our answer:
Students need to work independently for most of their time as scheduled classes form only a portion of the week.
What we did:
- Summarised two sentences into one.
- Changed 'as a student' to 'students' (related word)
- Used synonyms – ‘work independently’ instead of ‘organising most of your study time yourself’ – took the whole phrase and changed it.
- ‘Only part’ changed to ‘only a portion'.
This is just one possible answer
This short tutorial goes through the basics of how to paraphrase:
Video: Part 2
Quiz
Test your knowledge on referencing by taking this short quiz! You will get feedback on all of your answers.