How to list references

References at the end

Your references must be listed at the end of your report in alphabetic order based on the first word in the reference.

Three types of references are common:

• Periodical references
• Book references
• Internet references

Each of these has its special way of being presented. To see how they should be listed, click on the reference you want to learn more about.

Noting authorities and Quotes

When you  quote directly from a source, you MUST clearly indicate this. For a short quote we use quotation marks. Here is an example from an essay about the book "Foreign Affairs" by Alison Lurie:

Fred Turner, one of the main characters in Alison Lurie's book "Foreign Affairs" published in 1984, is fairly eccentric: "Usually he walks everywhere ... in imitation of the eighteenth-century author John Gray" (page 24).

(The three dots ... show we have missed a few words.)

Putting all the information in the text, as in the above example, is a bit clumsy so instead we can give full details of the book at the end of the essay and write just enough in the text to identify the book.  The details we must give are:

[Enough information to identify the source in your reference list at the back; usually the author's name], [Year published]:[Page number, if applicable]

Fred Turner, one of the main characters in Lurie's book, is fairly eccentric: "Usually he walks everywhere ... in imitation of the eighteenth-century author John Gray" (Lurie 1986:24). 

If you use a longer quote (more than 4 lines) then instead of quotation marks you should indent the quote like this:

Fred Turner, one of the main characters in Lurie's book, is fairly eccentric:

Though he has been in London for three weeks, this is the first time Fred has used the underground. Usually he walks everywhere, regardless of the distance or the weather, in imitation of the eighteenth-century author John Gray, about whom he is supposed to be writing a book.

At the end of your essay there should be a list of all the books you have quoted from or mentioned.  This list should be written in the following way:

Lurie, A (1986) Foreign Affairs, Abacus, London.
Name of author, date of publication, name of book (in italics), Publisher, where published.

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