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Coursework needs to have relevant argument/analysis, backed by a range of evidence which needs to be properly referenced. If you are just referring to the general thrust of an entire author/ book, either just mention the name in the text, or reference as below. If you are referring to a particular section from a book/article, that needs proper referencing. Quotations MUST be referenced to show exactly where it has come from. In whichever system, the reader needs to have these details somewhere:

BOOK - Author, title, place of publication, publisher, publication year, page number:

e.g. F. Bloggs, Presenting evidence, London, Duckworth, 1994, p. 14.

JOURNAL - Author, Article title, Journal, Volume, Year, pages of article, page of quote

e.g. D. Scott, 'Religious beliefs on Pluto', Galactic Religion 8, 1990, pp. 1-19, p. 8.

ELECTRONIC - Author, Title of paper, (any Journal/Book details), & crucially the 'www..' web-site address

e.g. D. Scott, 'Nikitin's adoption of Islam in India: a translator's dilemma, Entertext, 3, 2001, 30 pages, at 'http://www.brunel.ac.uk/faculty/arts/EnterText/1_3_pdfs/scott.pdf'. Website addresses can be long but they are needed 'in full' if your referencing is to be accurate, precise and verifiable. Further electronic use & abuse guidelines at computer-advice.

There are two standard academically acceptable systems, given below. Whichever one you use, be consistent throughout your text and do not introduce your own idiosyncratic system of referencing.

[1] FOOT/END NOTES

This style, sometimes called the OXFORD System has been long dominant in the Arts & Humanities. You put a footnote number at the end of the sentence in which your evidence has appeared, in brackets or slightly raised above the line. You then need to give the full details about that evidence in your numbered note entry e.g. (for a book entry), F. Bloggs, Presenting evidence, London, Duckworth, 1994, p. 14; or (for a journal entry), D. Scott, 'Religious beliefs on Pluto', Galactic Religion 8, 1990, pp. 1-19, p. 8. This is put at the bottom of the page as footnotes, or at the end of the whole text as endnote. If using a computer, the Word 'Insert' command will automatically number such foot/end notes for you.

If you refer to the same piece later on, you do not repeat the book details of place,publisher, date (or details of journal, volume number, year in teh case of an article). Instead you shorten the foot/end note to just author and page number, if it is the only title by him in your text. If you have a couple of books/articles by the same person you will need to give it with author, book/article (together with page ref.) details.

P.S. If the details (author/title) are the same as your immediately preceeding footnote, then you can use the Latin word ibid (which means same author, same work), followed by page number.

[2] SKELETON SYSTEM

This style, sometimes called the HARVARD System has become increasingly used in recent years, particularly in the Social Sciences. It cuts out the use of footnotes through integrating the text with the bibliography. Thus if you are referring to some evidence from a book article all you do in the text, at the end of the sentence, is to refer to the author followed by the year of publication and page number, e.g. (Bloggs 1994: 14). This has the advantage of actually cutting out separate footnoting, but its literary style is perhaps less polished as it can become a little intrusive in the sentence. A hybrid form (with 2) is to put them in this form as footnotes at the bottom of the page, or at the end of the text. In all settings the key is to provide full details in an end bibliography, e.g. Bloggs, F (1994), Presenting Evidence, London, Ducksworth.

P.S THE BIBLIOGRAPHY is there to show the range of materials you have actually actively used. Beware though, as concocting artificial padded listings can backfire against you. Directly citing/quoting them in your text does though directly prove your use of them to the examiner.

REFERENCING MUST BE CLEAR, COMPREHENSIVE, CONSISTENT

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