Writing a Reference List A Presentation from the Sawle Literature and Research Centre (SLRC)

Reference List vs. Bibliography: What’s the Difference? A reference list includes details for the sources you you have quoted, paraphrased or directly used in your assignment. Both a reference list and a bibliography include a list of sources (websites, books, journal articles, images etc) that you have used to learn more about your topic – but there is a slight difference. Did you know? The word ‘Bibliography’ is derived from the Greek word biblion meaning ‘books’. A bibliography includes details of all the sources that you have used to generate ideas or ‘read around’ a topic, but have not referred to directly in the body of the document e.g. Encyclopedia Britannica online.

Why Do I Need a Reference List? When you include a fact or piece of information in an assignment, you must also include where you found that information so that anyone reading your assignment can find it too. If you use information from a source and do not provide a reference, you are saying to your teacher that you came up with that knowledge on your own. This is called ‘plagiarism.’ Some things are ‘general knowledge’ and do not require a reference, e.g. Lakes are large bodies of water surrounded by land. A reference list that includes a variety of reliable sources shows your teacher that you have investigated your topic thoroughly.

Citation Styles There are a wide range of different citation styles. Some you may have heard of include: APA MLA Harvard Chicago Following a particular style ensures you include all the details needed for someone else to find the information you’ve used. Here at Santa Maria we use the Harvard referencing style.

Harvard Referencing Quick Guide

Front Cover Title

ISBN (useful when using ‘Cite This For Me’) Back Cover

Authors Publisher Title Page

Publisher’s address (place published) Copyright info (publication date) c Imprint Page

Other Commonly Referenced Sources (taken from Harvard Quick Referencing Guide)

‘Cite This For Me’ Saves your references for 7 days without an account. Allows you to copy and paste your references for free. MAKE SURE YOU SELECT HARVARD STYLE FROM THE ‘CITATION STYLE’ DROP-DOWN MENU!!

Referencing a website using ‘Cite This For Me’ Check details against original webpage to ensure they are correct before pressing ‘Add Reference’

Referencing a book using ‘Cite This For Me’ The easiest way to search for book details is to enter the ISBN. The ISBN is the number located near the barcode on the back cover of a book. The title of your book may not be unique, but the ISBN will be.

Referencing an image found online using ‘Cite This For Me’ Enter as many details as you can. If there is no author or photographer information, enter the name of the company or organisation who has published the website. If you cannot find the year published, select ‘undated’ from the drop-down list.

A note about online images… ‘Google Images’ is a search engine that collects images from all over the internet. It is not where the image is originally published, therefore you can not reference Google Images in your Reference List. To reference an online image correctly you must visit the page where the image originally appears: Click on the image in the search results, then click the ‘Visit Page’ button

Other Sources There are many other sources under the ‘More’ drop-down menu, including PDF documents, journal articles, newspaper articles and DVDs. If what you are looking for is not on the list, choose the closest thing and input as many details as you can. You can edit your references if necessary once you copy and paste them into a Word/Pages document.

Creating your final reference list Select ‘Copy and Paste’ (the ‘Download to Word’ option is only possible with a paid account) Your references are put into alphabetical order using the Harvard style. Highlight all your references, copy them, then paste into a Word document. (If you are asked to answer a survey question you can select the ‘Skip Survey’ option at the bottom).

Visit the SLRC Referencing & Bibliographies page for more information, or contact an SLRC Teacher Librarian.