1. The 3 R’s: Research, Reading and Referencing
Faculty of Arts
The 3 R’s: Research, Reading and Referencing

2. In this presentation: Research and Referencing
The Big Picture:
What Academic Research is and how it’s relevant to you
What kind of research you will be doing for the next few years
Gathering data
Source reliability
Reading
Referencing 2

3. Research You research things every day:
where to study and which degree to pursue
which Fringe show to see
what phone to buy
Your Arts degree puts a high value on research.
Your lecturers and tutors are also active researchers. 3

4. The purpose of academic research
The purpose of academic research has been defined by the Higher Education Research Data Collection (HERDC) as:
‘the creation of new knowledge and/or the use of existing knowledge in a new and creative way so as to generate new concepts … and understandings.’
Why is this relevant to you?
Life Impact The University of Adelaide 4

5. You are now a researcher
You will be using existing knowledge to generate new understandings.
Your mission is to follow these steps
Devise a question / hypothesis
Gather data
Analyse data
to ‘use and / or create new knowledge’: 5

6. The good news...
At first year level, you will mostly focus on stages two and three of the research process:
Gathering data
Analysing data
You won’t generally have to devise a research question of your own in at least the first year of your study.
You just need to take care of the three Rs, which are … 6

7. researching, reading and referencing
To what extent is "the anthropocene" a useful concept for guiding management of the physical environment?
Where are the 3 R’s needed here?
RESEARCH / READING
RESEARCH / READING
REFERENCING
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8. Where to begin: with the assignment question
Suppose you are answering this question: Does national security override free speech? Yes National security overrides free speech because … No National security does not override free speech because … Sometimes Only in certain limited circumstances does national security override free speech.
Pick an answer. Have a focus, a place to begin. 8

9. How to find appropriate and varied readings
What are the key term/s in this question?
Does national security override free speech?
What do you do with these key terms?
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10. The library
You don’t even need to leave the comfort of your bedroom. This address will take you to library homepage: The Search Engine for the library is in the middle of the homepage. Or use Google Scholar through our library page. 10

11. Using key terms in a Boolean search
The best way to use a search engine is to do a ‘Boolean’ search.
There’s a tutorial you can take about Boolean searching (go to 11

12. Boolean search
The main thing to remember is that you have some options to help narrow your search:
AND OR
NOT
Which phrase would you use to ensure you have search results that cover our key phrases (national security) / (free speech):
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13. Narrowing a search
Typing in the phrases like ‘national security’ AND ‘free speech’ still brings up a huge number of entries.
You can narrow these by using the ‘Show Only’ or ‘Refine my results’ functions. 13

14. Peer Reviewed Journals
‘Peer Reviewed’ means that the article is published in an academic source, and has been reviewed by a collection of academic ‘peers’ who have endorsed it. 14

15. Help
The library is staffed by a wonderful team of Research Librarians.
They create homepages for every discipline you will be studying in. 15

16. Source reliability
3rd: POPULAR MAGAZINES: These can be excellent for facts, especially about recent events, but are not peer reviewed
Rank these sources from the most to the least reliable.
4th: WIKIPEDIA: No way to verify information; use mainly as a first step to getting key terms
1st or 2nd: BOOKS: ‘Reliability’ determined by age of text and the subject matter of the course (You’d generally find more recent sources than a book written in the early 1990s for an essay on contemporary China, for example)
1st: GOOGLE SCHOLAR: 1. Up to date, peer-reviewed journal articles 16

17. Source analysis and critical reading
Once you have your sources, you need to analyse them.
This means reading critically.
Be an active reader. As you read, ask yourself:
What is the main point of this article / chapter?
What is the author saying?
How is she saying it? How is she trying to prove her point? 17

18. Reading: tricks and techniques
It can often be difficult to adjust to the language of scholarly sources. Think of the process as similar to learning another language. While reading, aim to: understanding at least part of the article pick up most of what is being said Don’t feel you need to comprehend everything in the text.
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19. Reading Read the title, abstract and introduction of the source:
These should give you a sense of what the source is discussing and arguing.
Make note of subtitles/headings of sections and topic sentences:
The headings of sections and the first sentence of each paragraph should give you the key point.
You can use this to get a sense of the source’s overall argument.
Reading Critically, Efficiently and Effectively, a short video in the Academic Skills resources course (found in Canvas), will help with this.
University of Adelaide

20. Critical reading basics
Filling in these blanks can get you thinking about critical reading:
1) The main purpose or function of this article / excerpt / artifact is ________________________.
2) The key message the author or creator wants to convey is __________________. They do this by ________________________.
3) The most important and / or interesting information in this article / excerpt / artifact is ____________.
Many of you will be asked to do Annotated Bibliographies, which are short summaries of a range of texts. You will address these points as part of that assignment. 20

21. Referencing sources: how does it make you feel?21

22. Take a calm approach to referencing
When referencing, you are doing two simple things:
following directions
keeping track of your sources (don’t lose them!)
Why do it?
To acknowledge the ideas of others
It is part of your development as a scholar
Proves your points are credible

23. Citation Styles Used in the Faculty
There are a range of citation styles. The most popular for this Faculty include:
Harvard (Author-Date) – Used by the majority of disciplines in the Faculty.
MLA – Used by English and Creative Writing Disciplines.
Chicago (Footnote) Style – Used by History.
Referencing module in Academic Skills Resources 23 17

24. Referencing: In Text and Works Cited
A reference comes in two parts: ‘in-text’ and in the ‘Works Cited’ list at the end of the essay.
You only usually put the basics (Author and Page No. for MLA, Author, Date and Page Number for Harvard) in the in-text citation in the actual essay
the full details of the source go at the end in the Works Cited List.
In-Text [using MLA]: (Reed 3)
Works Cited [using MLA]: Reed, John. “Dickens and Personification.” Dickens Quarterly 24.1 (2007): EBSCOhost. 25 Feb 2013.

25. Two ways to use sources in your writing
Paraphrase—summarise a part of the source in your own words
Even when you are just referring to an idea that you have read about, you still acknowledge the author of the idea.
2. Quote directly from the source
Using Sources module in Academic Skills Resources within Canvas.

26. Examples of in-text referencing
In-Text: Harvard (Author-Date) Style
Quoting:
McKenna (2007, p.17) suggests the Anzac Spirit is “universal.”
It has been suggested that the Anzac Spirit is “universal” (McKenna 2007, p.17).
Paraphrasing:
It could be said that the Anzac Spirit actually appears in many nations (McKenna 2007, p.17).
When you are talking about the overall work (such as a book) or research interests of a scholar you can just reference that book.
McKenna (2007) is interested in the dark side of patriotism.

27. Assumed Knowledge
Some information is assumed knowledge and you do not need to reference it. You wouldn’t cite the date World War II broke out (as scholars agree it was September 1939) or the fact that Sydney is in NSW.
‘Assumed Knowledge’ can be a tricky term. The excellent Purdue Owl resource has a list of ‘Assumed Knowledge’ points (

28. Works Cited Some key points to remember about a Works Cited list:
List the works you have cited from in Alphabetical Order (by Author Surname)
Only list the works you have quoted or paraphrased or for any reason cited in your essay
Make sure that everything is listed using the correct style (Harvard, MLA, Chicago and other Referencing Styles all have their own format)
Make sure the work is referenced in the correct style for the kind of document it is (there are different ways to reference different types of documents, including books, journals and electronic documents)

29. Referencing Help is at hand!
For MLA, try the UofA English Guide (
For Harvard,
For Chicago (Footnote) Style, try the Online Guide: (
There are also a range of Style Guides supplied by the Writing Centre:

30. Academic Skills Resources in Canvas
Using Sources
Referencing Sources
Tips for reading critically, effectively and efficiently
Making an Argument