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Improve Academic Results: Harvard Referencing Guide

Harvard Referencing

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Use this presentation to improve your ability to use direct and indirect references.

All you need to know about Harvard Referencing

Harvard Referencing

The key to good referencing is knowing when a citation is needed. For Harvard-style referencing, this includes when:

  • Quoting a source directly
  • Paraphrasing someone else’s argument
  • Using a diagram or illustration from another source
  • Using data or results from someone else’s research
  • Summarising someone else’s beliefs or thoughts

However, no citation is required when referring to something that is common knowledge (e.g. ‘Paris is in France’ or ‘fire is hot’) or when something is your own work (e.g. survey results or an illustration).

(Proofread My Essay, 2019)

It is important to remember that every online communication has the potential to be traced, found and reposted again, without your permission (McLean, 2014).

The three principles students should apply when note taking are: ensuring clear identification, using a flexible system and leaving room for comments (Clanchy and Ballard, 1997).

The Nelson Queensland English 3 series has been designed to match the new syllabus requirements (Durand et al., 2005).

The general format for a book in a Harvard reference list is:

Surname, Initial(s). (Year) Title, Place of publication, Publisher.

  • A book written by a single author, as in the example above: 

McLean, S. (2014). Sexts, text and selfies. Melbourne: Penguin Books, p.9.

  • A book written 2 or 3 authors, as in the example above: 

         **Remember to include (and reverse) all authors names.

Clanchy, J. and Ballard, B. (1997). Essay writing for students. Melbourne: Addison Wesley Longman, pp.68-70.

  • A book written 4 or more authors, as in the example above: 

     Durand, P., King, D., Uscinski, S., Yaxley, R., Taylor, R., Jorgensen, M. and Garrdiner, J.       (2005). Nelson Queensland English: Book 3. Southbank Victoria: Thomson Nelson.

The internet allows you to find information quickly (Moxley, 2009).

It is best, wherever possible, to reference the specific page or section of a website that you are using, rather than the whole website.

The general format for a website in a Harvard reference list is:

Author Surname, Initial(s). OR Corporate Body (Year) Title of web page [Online]. Available at URL [Accessed date].

  • If a website document doesn’t have an author (individual or corporate), start with the title of the document in italics followed by the date.

  • The the name of the corporate author in the surname box.

  • If there is no date, use n.d. 

As such, the source cited in the example above would appear in the reference list as:

Moxley, J. M. (2009) Library and Internet Research [Online]. Available at http://writingcommons.org/open-text/information-literacy/library-and-internet-research/732-library-and-internet-research [Accessed 31 May 2016].

References

 

Moxley, J. M. (2009) Library and Internet Research [Online]. Available at http://writingcommons.org/open-text/information-literacy/library-and-internet-research/732-library-and-internet-research [Accessed 31 May 2016].