Referencing

In your essays, you may want to make reference to relevant points from your reading.

WARNING! BEWARE OF PLAGIARISM!

If you read a relevant point in a book and want to use it in your essay, you must reference it (say where it came from).

If you do not reference it, you are breaking the rules of the not just Mary Immaculate College, but rules that prevail throughout all third level institutions.

To use someone else’s ideas without a reference is seen as intellectual theft, or plagiarism.

Referencing systems
There are established systems for referencing the work of others. Many systems exist, but you have to use the one specified by your lecturer and/or department.

It is important not to mix referencing systems in the same essay.

The basic components of any referencing system
Every time you read a book or an article, note the following details. These can then be worked into the reference style that your subject area requires.

Author(s) - the person who wrote the book, article, chapter etc.

Editor(s) – sometimes books are compiled by an editor or editors whose name(s) are on the cover of the book. In an edited book, a different author normally writes each chapter.

Year of publication – you will find this information in the first few pages of the book. Look for the © symbol; the year of publication is usually next to it. In books with many years, you should take the last most recent year.

Title of book, article or chapter - note this very carefully.

Publisher - the company that published the book, for example, Cambridge University Press.

Place of publication – where the book was published. This information is usually located in the pages immediately inside the cover of the book. If there is a list of three or four locations, for example, London, Sydney, New York, note the location nearest you, as you can assume that the edition of the book you are reading has come from the nearest point of publication.

The start and finish page numbers of an article in a journal or chapter in an edited book - make sure to include the whole chapter/article.

The title and the volume number and/or issue number of the journal.

Two main referencing systems are the Harvard System and the Footnoting System.