Mantex

Tutorials, Study Guides & More

  • HOME
  • REVIEWS
  • TUTORIALS
  • HOW-TO
  • CONTACT
>> Home / Archives for Referencing

Endnotes in essays

August 22, 2009 by Roy Johnson

sample from HTML program and PDF book

1. When you use quotations or mention someone else’s work in an essay, the source of the information is most conveniently given in endnotes – a system of bibliographic references which appears at the end of the essay.

2. A bracketed number is placed in your text, as A.B. Smith suggests, ‘at the end of the statement or the sentence in which the reference is made’ (1), and successive references to this or other works are given the next higher number.

3. These endnotes are then listed ‘with bibliographic exactness’ (2) at the end of the essay as follows:

NOTES

1. A.B. Smith, How to Use Endnotes Correctly, Manchester: Imaginary Press: 1999, p.345.

2. Judith Butcher, Copy Editing: the Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Authors, and Publishers, 3rd edn, Cambridge University Press, 1992, p.234.

4. If you are using the Harvard system of referencing, the date of publication follows the author’s name.

5. If a direct quotation is being used, the information in the endnote should allow a reader (including you, at a later date) to trace the source of the quotation if necessary. That is, you should give details of author, title, publisher, and date of publication, then page number – as indicated here in the first endnote.

6. Successive quotations from the same source may be indicated by using the op. cit. and ibid. system. However, the short reference system which gives author and title is preferable as this makes the information easier to trace for the reader.

7. In a short essay which only refers to three or four different sources, successive references might be given as follows:

3. Butcher, op. cit., p.123.

8. In a longer essay, which might be drawing on a large number of sources, some of which may include different works by the same author, the short title system is to be preferred:

4. Smith, Endnotes, p.321.

9. The traditional referencing system using op. cit. and ibid. is gradually disappearing in favour of the much clearer short title and Harvard systems. However, it is worth knowing how it works, because so much academic writing has been produced using this system. You need to know how to trace other people’s references in older publications.

10. If you are quoting repeatedly from one particular work, give
full bibliographic details in your first endnote. Then add the statement All subsequent page references to this edition. After that, just give page references in the text of your essay.

© Roy Johnson 2003

Buy Writing Essays — eBook in PDF format
Buy Writing Essays 3.0 — eBook in HTML format


More on writing essays
More on How-To
More on writing skills


Filed Under: Writing Essays Tagged With: Academic writing, Endnotes, Essays, Referencing, Study skills, Term papers, Writing skills

How to cite electronic sources

September 15, 2009 by Roy Johnson

academic conventions for the digital age

Referencing

1. More and more data is now stored electronically in a variety of forms.

2. When quoting, your sources may be in some digital form.

3. The information might be stored in different types of location.

4. Many of these locations are known as Internet ‘sites’ or ‘addresses’.

5. The sources you are most likely to encounter are as follows:

  • FTP site
  • Web site
  • Newsgroup
  • CD-ROM
  • E-mail

Accuracy

1. Details of addresses should be recorded with complete accuracy.

2. All use of capital and lower case letters must be respected.

3. All punctuation must be recorded exactly as given.

4. No punctuation should be added.

5. For instance, don’t put a full stop at the end of an address:

https://mantex.co.uk – not – https://mantex.co.uk.

6. Typographic symbols (#,@,!,~) should be incorporated accurately.

7. You should also include a record of the date the site was visited.

8. Electronic documents may easily be updated at any time.


FTP (File Transfer Protocol) Sites

1. When giving reference to sources located via FTP, you should provide the following information. The electronic ‘address’ of the document is enclosed in angle brackets (which are optional).

  • the author’s name (if known)
  • the full title of the document in quotation marks
  • the date of publication (if available)
  • the abbreviation ftp
  • the address of the ftp site, with no closing punctuation
  • the full path to the paper, with no closing punctuation
  • the date of access in parentheses

Example:

Bruckman, Amy. “Approaches to Managing Deviant Behavior in Virtual
Communities.”

<ftp://ftp.media.mit.edu/pub/asb/papers/deviance-chi-94>
(4 Dec. 1994).


World Wide Web (WWW) Sites

1. To cite files available for viewing or downloading via the World Wide Web by means of Firefox, Internet Explorer, or other Web browsers, you should provide the following information:

  • the author’s name (if known)
  • the full title of the document in quotation marks
  • the title of the complete work if applicable in italics
  • the date of publication or last revision (if available)
  • the full http address (URL) enclosed within angle brackets
  • the date of visit in parentheses

[ HTTP = HyperText Transfer Protocol ]
[ URL = Uniform Resource Locator ]

Example:

Burka, Lauren P. “A Hypertext History of Multi-User Dimensions.”
MUD History. 1993.
<http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/1pb/mud-history.html>
(5 Dec. 1994).


Newsgroup (USENET) messages

1. When citing information posted by participants in newgroup discussions, you should provide the following information:

  • the author’s name (if known)
  • the author’s e-mail address, enclosed in angle brackets
  • the subject line from the posting in quotation marks
  • the date of publication
  • the name of the newsgroup, enclosed in angle brackets
  • the date of access in parentheses

Example:

Slade, Robert. <res@maths.bath.ac.uk> “UNIX Made Easy.”
26 Mar. 1996. <alt.books.reviews> (31 Mar. 1996).


E-mail messages

1. When citing electronic mail correspondence, you should provide the following information:

  • the author’s name
  • the author’s e-mail address, enclosed in angle brackets
  • the subject line from the posting in quotation marks
  • the date of publication
  • the kind of communication
  • the date of access in parentheses

Example:

Franke, Norman. <franke1@llnl.gov> “SoundApp 2.0.2.” 29 Apr. 1996. Personal e-mail. (3 May 1996).


CD-ROM disk

1. When citing information located on a CD-ROM disk, the source is treated as if it were a normal (print) publication, and you should provide the following information:

  • the author’s name (if known)
  • the full title of the document in quotation marks
  • the full title of the CD-ROM
  • the publisher
  • the date of publication (if available)

Example:

Norman Higginbottam, “The Sounds of Muzak”, Beethoven Revisited,
Digital Resources, 1996.


Details gratefully quoted and adapted with permission from Andrew Harnack and Gene Kleppinger, online! a reference guide to using internet sources, St Martin’s Press, 1997.

© Roy Johnson 2004


More on How-To
More on literary studies
More on writing skills


Filed Under: How-to guides, Literary studies, Study Skills Tagged With: Academic writing, Citation, Electronic sources, Reference, Referencing, Research, Writing skills

How to create a bibliography

November 16, 2009 by Roy Johnson

the basic conventions for academic writing

1. bibliographyAt the end of any scholarly writing (an essay, report, or dissertation) you should offer a list of any works you have consulted or from which you have quoted. This list is called a bibliography – literally, a list of books or sources.

2. The traditional way of showing this information is to use the following sequence:

Author – Title – Publisher – Date

Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory, Oxford: Blackwell, 1983.

3. In some cases, you might be expected to present this information with the author’s surname listed first – as follows:

Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory, Oxford: Blackwell, 1983.

4. If you are using the Harvard system of notation, the date follows the author’s name – thus:

Eagleton, T. (1983), Literary Theory, Oxford: Blackwell

5. Notice that book titles are shown in italics.

6. If you are using a ‘standard’ text, give the editor’s name first, as in the following examples:

Mark Amory (ed), The Letters of Evelyn Waugh, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1980.

Frank Kermode (ed), The Tempest, Methuen, 1954.

7. List the items of a bibliography in alphabetical order according to author’s or the editor’s surname.

8. Don’t list works you have not consulted or from which you have not quoted. Doing this creates the impression that you are trying to claim credit for work you have not actually done.

9. You might find that your bibliography repeats much of the information given in your endnotes or footnotes. Don’t worry about this: these two separate lists have different functions. In addition, your bibliography may contain works from which you have not directly quoted.

10. Here’s an extract from the bibliography of a second year undergraduate essay on the sociology of domestic labour:

Bibliography

Beeton, I., Beeton’s Book of Household Management, Chancellor Press, 1991.

Best, G., Mid-Victorian Britain 1851-75, Fontana, 1979.

Branca, P., Silent Sisterhood, Croom Helm, 1975.

Burman, S. (ed), Fit Work for Women, Croom Helm, 1979.

Burnett, J., Useful Toil, Allen Lane, 1974.

Darwin, E., ‘Domestic Service’, The Nineteenth Century, Vol.28, August 1890.

Davidoff, L., The Best Circles, Croom Helm, 1973.

Davidoff, L., ‘Mastered for Life: Servant and Wife in Victorian and Edwardian England’, Journal of Economic and Social History, Vol.7, 1974.

The Harvard System

11. Some subjects adopt the Author-Date method of referencing – which is also known as the Harvard System. Full details of the texts you have quoted are placed in the bibliography in the following order:

Author – Date – Title – Place – Publisher

Smith, John. (1988) The Weavers’ Revolt, Chicago, Blackbarrow Press.

12. The list of texts which appears at the end of your essay should be arranged in alphabetical order of the author’s surname. The list differs from a traditional bibliography in that the date of publication follows the author’s name.

So – the same bibliography shown above would appear as follows in Harvard style:

Bibliography

Beeton, I. 1991 Beeton’s Book of Household Management, Chancellor Press.

Best, G. 1979 Mid-Victorian Britain 1851-75, Fontana.

Burman, S. 1979 (ed), Fit Work for Women, Croom Helm.

Darwin, E. 1890 ‘Domestic Service’, The Nineteenth Century, Vol.28, August.

Davidoff, L. 1973 The Best Circles, Croom Helm.

Davidoff, L. 1974 ‘Mastered for Life: Servant and Wife in Victorian and Edwardian England’, Journal of Social History, Vol.7.

Davidoff, L. 1987 and Hall, C., Family Fortunes, Hutchinson.

[…and so on]

bibliography Full details of Harvard style referencing.

© Roy Johnson 2009


More on How-To
More on literary studies
More on writing skills


Filed Under: 19C Literature, 20C Literature, How-to guides, Literary studies, Study Skills Tagged With: Academic writing, Bibliography, Harvard style referencing, Referencing, Study skills, Writing skills

How to use quotations

September 16, 2009 by Roy Johnson

the conventions and techniques of quotation

Quotations

1. There are in general two instances when you may wish to use quotations from other writers’ work:

Evidence – when quoting from other sources to support your own argument(s)

Reference – when a text is itself the subject of your essay and you need to refer to it in your discussion.

2. The conventions of accurate quotation and referencing are relatively simple, and they are based on the need for accuracy, consistency, and clarity. There are a number of slightly different systems of notation. The two most widely used are:

  • a quotation, with an endnote giving the source
  • the Harvard system (described separately)

3. The whole purpose of both systems is that tutors marking your work should be able, if they wish, to check the accuracy of the quotations you use.

Evidence

4. In a discussion of the development of Marx’s philosophy for example, you might argue that his work was a natural development of his predecessors, supporting your assertion by quoting David McLellan. He points out that

Marx began by paying tribute to the achievements of Feuerbach, particularly in having shown that Hegel’s philosophy was no more than a rationalisedtheology. (1)

5. A bracketed number is added immediately after the quotation, and the source of your quotation is given as an endnote on a separate sheet at the end of your essay. (You might wish to place the information as a footnote at the bottom of the page, though this system can become rather complicated.)

NOTES

1. David McLellan, The Thought of Karl Marx, London: Macmillan, 1971, p.26.

6. Note that this information is given in the following order, and you should remember to indicate the titles of books by using italics.

Author – Book Title – Publisher – Date – Page

7. The material you quote is placed between two single quotation marks if it is run in as part of your text:

this is what David McLellan calls a ‘rationalised theology’ (1) in his discussion of the relationship between Marx and Hegel

8. If the length of the quote amounts to more than three lines of your own text however, it should be indented separately, and no quote marks are necessary:

Marx began by paying tribute to the achievements of Feuerbach, particularly in having shown that Hegel’s philosophy was no more than a rationalised theology, and having discovered the true materialist approach by starting from the social relationship of man to man. (1)

9. Your own argument should normally be offered first, and you then reinforce it with quotation from an authoritative source. You are using this secondary evidence from acknowledged specialists to support your own views. Do not offer the quotation first, otherwise what should be your own argument will tend to be come more a ‘commentary’ upon it.

10. The quotations you offer should be as brief as possible to make their point. Don’t be tempted to offer long quotations from other people’s work in the hope that this will act as a substitute for your own argument. Nor should you stitch together a patchwork of quotations from a variety of sources with a few words of your own. This creates the impression that you are relying too heavily on other people’s work.

11. Sometimes in more advanced essays it might be necessary to quote longer passages. You would do this if you were going to analyse the author’s arguments in detail and at quite some length. This should only be done occasionally.

12. Each main point of your argument should be made and discussed in its own separate paragraph. This should not normally need more than one quotation to support it. Too many quotations can create the impression that you are relying too heavily on secondary sources.

Reference

13. When the subject of your essay is the discussion of a text (say, criticism of a novel or an article) you should follow the same system of notation. Directly after the first quotation you should give a full bibliographic description of the text you are discussing.

14. This information could be given within brackets in the body of your essay, but you will be developing good academic habits if you place the information as an endnote after the conclusion of your essay.

15. If your essay is predominantly concerned with just one text, all subsequent quotations from it may simply be followed by page references. Simply add an explanation to the first endnote, saying – all subsequent page references are to this edition.

16. If you will be quoting from a variety of other sources in the same essay, you should number the quotations and give the sources accurately as a series of endnotes.

17. It is also possible to mix these two forms of referencing, so long as the distinctions are made clear. If your piece of work was a long essay on Bleak House for instance, it would be acceptable to identify all your quotations from the novel with page references. Quotations from other critics or sources would numbered and their sources identified as separate endnotes.

18. There must be grammatical continuity and sense maintained between any quotation and your own argument. To arrange this, it might be necessary to add or delete words from the material quoted, or to change the tense of the original. Whenever you do this, any changes should be very small. They must also be properly acknowledged.

[It was] as if she were truly loved by him, but notwithstanding this impression she regarded the man as no more than a casual acquaintance who occasionally made her laugh (p.7)

19. Square brackets are used to indicate any words which you have added in order to make the quotation fit grammatically or otherwise within your own argument.

20. If you wish to draw attention to a particular word or some part of the quotation, you should provide the emphasis by using italics. You should then immediately admit the fact ‘as if she were loved by him’ [p.7 – my emphasis] and then carry on with what you wish to say in the remainder of your argument.

21. In order to shorten a quotation or to remove some part of it which is not relevant to your argument, you may wish to omit a number of words. To denote this omission (which is called an ellipsis) you should use the convention of the three dots ‘…’ in the space which is left:

He had even a kind of assurance on his face … the assurance of a common man filled with pride. (p.7)

22. This device should not be used to change the sense of the original in any way, or to misrepresent its spirit: such practices are regarded as academically fraudulent.

23. The three dots denoting an ellipsis do not need to be placed at the beginning or the end of your quotation, even if you are quoting a few words from within a sentence.

24. The general convention for indicating quotation is to use single quote marks (‘unmitigated’) and to reserve double quotes marks for indicating speech (“Good gracious!” cried the duchess.)

25. When quoting conversation, follow these rules, but if it makes things easier put the words spoken within double quote marks even if they were in single quote marks in the original:

Kayerts is being even more hypocritical and self-deceiving when he ‘observe[s] with a sigh: “It had to be done”‘ (p.39)

26. If you are quoting more than once from a number of works in an essay, you can avoid confusion and save yourself the trouble of giving a full reference each time. Use either the op. cit. and ibid. or the short title convention.

27. Different subjects have their own conventions in this respect – but the short title system is becoming more widely used and is easier to follow. However, an enormous number of academic books have been produced using the older system, so it is worth understanding how it operates, even if you decide not to use it.

28. Using the system of Latin abbreviations, the first quotation from a text is referenced fully with an endnote. In the case of any references which follow, just give the author’s name followed by op. cit. (which means ‘in the work already quoted’) and then the page number – as follows:

11. J.D. Bryant, The Origins of Mythology, London: Carfax Press, 1971, p.234.

12. History Today, Vol XXXIV, No 18, p.123.

13. Bryant, op. cit., p. 387.

29. If the very next quotation is again from the same work, the abbreviation ibid. (which means ‘in the same place’) is followed by a page reference. You do not need to give the author’s name. The sequence just given would therefore be extended:

11. J.D. Bryant, The Origins of Mythology, London: Carfax Press, 1971, p.234.

12. History Today, Vol XXXIV, No 18, p.123.

13. Bryant, op. cit., p. 387.

14. ibid., p. 388.

30. The short title system is particularly useful for longer essays which might deal with a number of texts or different books by the same author. Second and third year undergraduate studies often require a lengthy piece of work such as this. The principle is the same one of giving full bibliographical details in the first reference. Subsequent quotations are given a reference which is composed of the author’s surname, a shortened form of the book title, and the page number. The examples shown above would therefore appear as follows:

11. J.D. Bryant, The Origins of Mythology, London: Carfax Press, 1971, p.234.

12. History Today, Vol XXXIV, No 18, p.123.

13. Bryant, Mythology, p. 387.

31. The conventions of quoting from poetry and plays are exactly
the same, but for the convenience of the reader, line numbers are given.

32. There are a number of widespread misunderstandings about the use of quotation and systems of referencing. It is worth taking the trouble to follow the conventions outlined above (or use the Harvard system). Once you have brought simplicity and clarity to the presentation of your quotations it will help to improve the appearance and credibility of your work.

Some do’s and don’ts
  • You should not put page references in margins: they are placed immediately after the quotation, within your text.
     
  • You should not locate references as part of your own argument with expression such as ‘and we see this on page 27 where he collapses slowly … then later in the paragraph where he recovers’.
     
  • Ellipses are shown by three dots only [ … ] not a random
    number scattered across the page.
     
  • References and note numbers should form part of the text of your argument. They should not be added to the essay at a later stage and written into the margins or squeezed above the text as superscripts.

33. You should avoid using too many quotations and references to secondary material. In some subjects this can sometimes be required (as in a ‘review of the literature’) but in most it is not. Packing your essay with references to other people’s ideas creates the impression that you are unable to create an argumentof your own. Remember that your own evidence or points should come first. Quotation should normally be offered after you have established your own argument.

34. Some people use quotations as a means of starting an introduction or rounding off the conclusion to an essay. This can give your work a touch of sparkle if the quote is well chosen. However, you should minimise the use of this strategy in the body of the essay itself. Paragraphs which begin with a quotation can weaken your argument – for two reasons.

  • First, you are not leading with your own ideas in the form of a topic sentence directly related to the question.
     
  • Second, the substance of your argument in what follows might give the impression of being a commentary on the secondary source quoted, rather than an answer to the original question.

© Roy Johnson 2004


More on How-To
More on literary studies
More on writing skills


Filed Under: How-to guides, Literary studies, Study Skills Tagged With: Academic writing, Essay writing, Quotations, Referencing, Study skills, Writing skills

Online style guides

September 16, 2009 by Roy Johnson

Online style guides The Writer’s Workshop
Writing skills, grammar, teaching notes, bibliographic style, tips, and plenty more.
http://www.cws.illinois.edu/workshop/

style guides Guide to Grammar and Writing
Very good grammar guide, plus other resources.
http://www.englishgrammar.org/

style guides Purdue On-line Writing Lab
Purdue’s famous OWL, useful for general writing concerns
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

Online style guides How to Cite Electronic Sources
Practical examples from Library of Congress.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/start/cite/index.html

Online style guides The Elements of Style
William Strunk, Jr.’s original 1918 classic. The ‘bare bones’ approach to common problems.
http://www.bartleby.com/141/

Online style guides On-Line Study Resources
Style, grammar, essay-writing, citations and footnotes, plagiarism and presentation from the University of New South Wales.
http://www.lc.unsw.edu.au/olib.html

Online style guidesWIRED Style
Wired Magazine’s online version of their print publication Principles of English Usage in the Digital Age. A guide to writing and editing which looks at the problems thrown up by the new language of the digital age.
http://hotwired.lycos.com/hardwired/wiredstyle/

Online style guides alt.usage.english – Style FAQ
Mark Israel’s Frequently Asked Questions covers common English usage questions, word etymology, online and offline references, and more.
http://www.english-usage.com/faq.html

Online style guides WebGrammar
Judy Vorfeld’s excellent site covers some of the most common writing mistakes, including spelling, grammar and homonym errors.
http://www.webgrammar.com

Online style guides IEEE Computer Society Style Guide
Handy if you wish to submit papers going to their journals, or do any work using their style.
Download the style guide here (PDF)

Here are some other UK journalism styleguides available online:

Online style guides The Guardian

Online style guides The Economist

Online style guides Reuters

Online style guides Associated Press

Online style guides The Telegraph

Online style guides Financial Times Lexicon

© Roy Johnson 2004



More on How-To
More on literary studies
More on writing skills


Filed Under: How-to guides, Study skills, Study Skills Tagged With: Academic writing, Online style guides, Referencing, Style guides, Technology, Writing skills

Online! a guide to using Internet sources

November 20, 2009 by Roy Johnson

academic referencing and writing style guide

This is a handy spiral-bound pocketbook which offers a compact guide to academic writing and its relation to the Internet. It presents standards for accessing, evaluating, and quoting Net sources. Most importantly, it shows you how to present digital referencing in academic writing. These are issues facing many students [and tutors] in the sudden eruption of the digital world into what was a bibliographic tradition dating back to the early Renaissance.

Digital referencingThe orientation is entirely American, but it includes models for citation in four different systems: the Modern Languages Association (MLA), American Psychological Association (APA), Council of Biology Editors (CBE) and Chicago University Press styles. Any of these could be adapted by European readers. They go into all the nit-picking details of where colons and angled brackets should be placed, where to use mono-spaced fonts to indicate addresses, and how best to break long URLs across consecutive lines.

The guide also includes tips for writing and publishing on the Net, and a directory of Net sources in the major academic disciplines. There is a rather good glossary, imaginatively placed at the front of the book; it has a full index, and the contents pages are well-designed. It includes some very helpful tips by the way – such as examples of lesser-know but useful URLs, and it even includes a brief chapter on how to create your own Web site.

In a bibliographic world where locations are ever-shifting, and where files can be updated on the hour, it includes important details on the dating and updating of files for the purposes of academic accuracy, and the evaluation of sources.

There has been some discussion in mailing list groups recently which has criticized the obsession with accuracy on these issues as an arm of the academic establishment’s concern with form at the expense of content. (This seems to be an issue which is more prevalent in the US than the UK it seems.) However, anybody who anticipates referencing digital sources in academic writing will find this a useful resource – and terrific value at the price.

citing Internet sources   Buy the book at Amazon UK

citing Internet sources   Buy the book at Amazon US

© Roy Johnson 2009


Andrew Harnack and Eugene Kleppinger, Online! a reference
guide to using Internet sources
, New York: St Martin’s Press, 1997, pp.162, ISBN: 0312150237


More on study skills
More on writing skills
More on online learning


Filed Under: Study skills Tagged With: Academic writing, Electronic Writing, Internet sources, Quotations, Referencing

Get in touch

info@mantex.co.uk

Content © Mantex 2016
  • About Us
  • Advertising
  • Clients
  • Contact
  • FAQ
  • Links
  • Services
  • Reviews
  • Sitemap
  • T & C’s
  • Testimonials
  • Privacy

Copyright © 2025 · Mantex

Copyright © 2025 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in