Nudgee College Library

Why reference?

• To acknowledge the author of the idea or thought.
• To indicate to the reader your source of information in order for the reader to validate the source.
• To add value to your own work by using knowledge that has come from an expert base.
• To add value to your own work by using facts and figures that have been validated.

What should be referenced?

• Direct quotations.
• Information including facts and figures that has been paraphrased.
• Ideas that have been adapted from another's original idea.
• You do not have to acknowledge accepted beliefs or general knowledge

In-text Referencing

Harvard system of referencing within text. There are variations even with in the Harvard system. The important thing to remember is always to be consistent in your referencing.

• Quoting from one page of a book or article with a single author

Beach (1999, p. 109) argues that 'any physical article is an offensive weapon even if it is an article of a kind normally used only to inflict or threaten injury' .

Any physical article is an offensive weapon even it is an article of a kind normally used only to inflict or threaten injury' (Beach 1999, p. 109).

• Paraphrasing from more than one page

Brennan (2003, pp. 59, 63-64) points out  that the statement that asylum seekers were throwing their children overboard  was purely a political manoeuvre manufactured by the Australian Government.

• Reference to argument of a whole work

Brennan (2003) argues in his book "Tampering with Asylum" that the Australian government's response to asylum seekers is a massive overreaction.

• Reference to multiple authors

Smith, Brown and Jones (2004, p. 62) state that interest rates will rise within the next month to counteract rising inflation.
Reference to a corporate author

The Family Law Court (2003) states that children are often seen as "possessions" by parents and consequently their real needs are not taken into account.

• Reference to a newspaper article

It was reported in the Courier Mail (15 Feb. 2004, p3) that...

• An author quoted in the work of another

Peter Smith (in Brown, 1974, p. 14) recommended that ICTs be made an integral part of Middle School education.

• Chemistry

As demonstrated in Figure 2.2. (Smith, 2000) positive icons migrate from left to right while nitrate ions migrate from right to left.The Equations 2.4 and 2.5 ( Smith, 2000) proves...

The equation Pb(s) + 2Ag + (aq) -> Pb² + (aq) + 2AG (s) as outlined in Smith (2003) demonstrated lead will displace silver from solution to produce silver metal.

Referring to an equation in the text: ... the coefficient 2  in equation 1 ...

• Reference to an internet source

There are between 1 billion to 1.8 billion Muslims (Wikipedia, 2008) making Islam the second largest religion in the world after Christianity.