referencing essay format

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APA Formatting and Style Guide (7th Edition)

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In-Text Citations

Resources on using in-text citations in APA style

Reference List

Resources on writing an APA style reference list, including citation formats

Other APA Resources

References provide the information necessary for readers to identify and retrieve each work cited in the text .

Check each reference carefully against the original publication to ensure information is accurate and complete. Accurately prepared references help establish your credibility as a careful researcher and writer.

Consistency in reference formatting allows readers to focus on the content of your reference list, discerning both the types of works you consulted and the important reference elements (who, when, what, and where) with ease. When you present each reference in a consistent fashion, readers do not need to spend time determining how you organized the information. And when searching the literature yourself, you also save time and effort when reading reference lists in the works of others that are written in APA Style.

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Course Adoption

Teaching APA Style? Become a course adopter of the 7th edition Publication Manual

Instructional Aids

Guides, checklists, webinars, tutorials, and sample papers for anyone looking to improve their knowledge of APA Style

Scribbr Referencing Generator

Accurate Harvard, APA, MLA, and Chicago references, verified by experts, trusted by millions.

Reference sources in seconds with Autocite

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Inaccurate references can cost you points on your assignments, so our seasoned referencing experts have invested countless hours in perfecting Scribbr’s reference generator algorithms. We’re proud to be recommended by teachers and universities across the UK.

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Look up your source by its title, URL, ISBN, or DOI, and let Scribbr find and fill in all the relevant information automatically.

Harvard, APA, MLA, Chicago

Generate flawless references according to the official Harvard , APA , MLA, or Chicago style rules. More referencing styles will be available soon!

Export to Word

When your reference list is complete, export it to Word. We’ll apply the official formatting guidelines automatically.

Lists and folders

Create separate reference lists for each of your assignments to stay organized. You can also group related lists into folders.

Export to Bib(La)TeX

Are you using a LaTex editor like Overleaf? If so, you can easily export your references in Bib(La)TeX format with a single click.

Custom fonts

Change the typeface used for your reference list to match the rest of your document. Options include Times New Roman, Arial, and Calibri.

Industry-standard technology

Scribbr’s Referencing Generator is built using the same citation software (CSL) as Mendeley and Zotero, but with an added layer for improved accuracy.

Annotations

Describe or evaluate your sources in annotations, and Scribbr will generate a perfectly formatted annotated bibliography.

Referencing guides

Scribbr’s popular guides and videos will help you understand everything related to finding, evaluating, and referencing sources.

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• Introduction
• Finding sources

Evaluating sources

• Integrating sources

Referencing sources

Tools and resources, a quick guide to working with sources.

Working with sources is an important skill that you’ll need throughout your academic career.

It includes knowing how to find relevant sources, assessing their authority and credibility, and understanding how to integrate sources into your work with proper referencing.

This quick guide will help you get started!

Finding relevant sources

Sources commonly used in academic writing include academic journals, scholarly books, websites, newspapers, and encyclopedias. There are three main places to look for such sources:

• Research databases: Databases can be general or subject-specific. To get started, check out this list of databases by academic discipline . Another good starting point is Google Scholar .
• Your institution’s library: Use your library’s database to narrow down your search using keywords to find relevant articles, books, and newspapers matching your topic.
• Other online resources: Consult popular online sources like websites, blogs, or Wikipedia to find background information. Be sure to carefully evaluate the credibility of those online sources.

When using academic databases or search engines, you can use Boolean operators to refine your results.

Generate Harvard, APA, MLA, and Chicago style references in seconds

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In academic writing, your sources should be credible, up to date, and relevant to your research topic. Useful approaches to evaluating sources include the CRAAP test and lateral reading.

CRAAP is an abbreviation that reminds you of a set of questions to ask yourself when evaluating information.

• Currency: Does the source reflect recent research?
• Relevance: Is the source related to your research topic?
• Authority: Is it a respected publication? Is the author an expert in their field?
• Accuracy: Does the source support its arguments and conclusions with evidence?
• Purpose: What is the author’s intention?

Lateral reading

Lateral reading means comparing your source to other sources. This allows you to:

• Verify evidence
• Contextualize information
• Find potential weaknesses

If a source is using methods or drawing conclusions that are incompatible with other research in its field, it may not be reliable.

Integrating sources into your work

Once you have found information that you want to include in your paper, signal phrases can help you to introduce it. Here are a few examples:

Following the signal phrase, you can choose to quote, paraphrase or summarize the source.

• Quoting : This means including the exact words of another source in your paper. The quoted text must be enclosed in quotation marks or (for longer quotes) presented as a block quote . Quote a source when the meaning is difficult to convey in different words or when you want to analyze the language itself.
• Paraphrasing: This means putting another person’s ideas into your own words. It allows you to integrate sources more smoothly into your text, maintaining a consistent voice. It also shows that you have understood the meaning of the source.
• Summarizing : This means giving an overview of the essential points of a source. Summaries should be much shorter than the original text. You should describe the key points in your own words and not quote from the original text.

Whenever you quote, paraphrase, or summarize a source, you must include a citation crediting the original author.

Referencing your sources is important because it:

• Allows you to avoid plagiarism
• Establishes the credentials of your sources
• Backs up your arguments with evidence
• Allows your reader to verify the legitimacy of your conclusions

The most common citation styles in the UK are APA, MLA, Harvard, Vancouver, MHRA, and Oscola. Each citation style has specific rules for formatting citations.

Scribbr’s free Reference Generator can generate perfect references and in-text citations in both APA and MLA styles. More citation styles will be available soon!

Scribbr and partners offer tons of tools and resources to make working with sources easier and faster. Take a look at our top picks:

• Reference Generator: Automatically generate Harvard and APA references .
• Plagiarism Checker : Detect plagiarism in your paper using the most accurate Turnitin-powered plagiarism software available to students.
• Proofreading services : Have a human editor improve your writing.
• Knowledge Base : Explore hundreds of articles, bite-sized videos, time-saving templates, and handy checklists that guide you through the process of research, writing, and citation.

• MJC Library & Learning Center
• Research Guides

Format Your Paper & Cite Your Sources

• Harvard Style
• Citing Sources
• Avoid Plagiarism
• MLA Style (8th/9th ed.)
• APA Style, 7th Edition
• Chicago Style

What is Harvard Style?

What you need to know, harvard style tutorial.

• Other Styles
• Annotated Bibliographies
• How to Create an Attribution

Harvard Style

The Harvard referencing system is known as the Author-Date style . It emphasizes the name of the creator of a piece of information and the date of publication, with the list of references in alphabetical order at the end of your paper.

Unlike other citation styles, there is no single, definitive version of Harvard Style. Therefore, you may see a variation in features such as punctuation, capitalization, abbreviations, and the use of italics. 

Always check with your instructor and follow the rules he or she gives you.

• Harvard Style Guidelines Your class handout
• Harvard Referencing Quick Guide From Staffordshire University

Harvard Style will affect your paper in two places:

• In-text citations in the body of your paper, and
• The reference list at the end of your paper
• All in-text citations should be listed in the reference list at the end of your paper.
• Reference list entries need to contain all the information that someone reading your paper would need in order to find your source.
• Reference lists in Harvard Style are arranged alphabetically by first author.
• Begin your Reference list on a new page after your text and number it consecutively.

Sample References List:

Click on the Links Below to See Additional Examples:

• Sample Paper Paper provided by Kurt Olson
• Harvard Citation Examples Document created by The University of Western Australia

Click on the image below to launch this tutorial that was created by the University of Leeds. The section on Citing in Text is especially useful.

• << Previous: Chicago Style
• Next: Other Styles >>
• Last Updated: Jul 10, 2024 5:03 PM
• URL: https://libguides.mjc.edu/citeyoursources

Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 and CC BY-NC 4.0 Licenses .

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• Knowledge Base
• Citing sources

How to Cite Sources | Citation Generator & Quick Guide

Citing your sources is essential in  academic writing . Whenever you quote or paraphrase a source (such as a book, article, or webpage), you have to include a  citation crediting the original author.

Failing to properly cite your sources counts as plagiarism , since you’re presenting someone else’s ideas as if they were your own.

The most commonly used citation styles are APA and MLA. The free Scribbr Citation Generator is the quickest way to cite sources in these styles. Simply enter the URL, DOI, or title, and we’ll generate an accurate, correctly formatted citation.

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Table of contents

When do you need to cite sources, which citation style should you use, in-text citations, reference lists and bibliographies.

Scribbr Citation Generator

Other useful citation tools

Citation examples and full guides, frequently asked questions about citing sources.

Citations are required in all types of academic texts. They are needed for several reasons:

• To avoid plagiarism by indicating when you’re taking information from another source
• To give proper credit to the author of that source
• To allow the reader to consult your sources for themselves

A citation is needed whenever you integrate a source into your writing. This usually means quoting or paraphrasing:

• To quote a source , copy a short piece of text word for word and put it inside quotation marks .
• To paraphrase a source , put the text into your own words. It’s important that the paraphrase is not too close to the original wording. You can use the paraphrasing tool if you don’t want to do this manually.

Citations are needed whether you quote or paraphrase, and whatever type of source you use. As well as citing scholarly sources like books and journal articles, don’t forget to include citations for any other sources you use for ideas, examples, or evidence. That includes websites, YouTube videos , and lectures .

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Usually, your institution (or the journal you’re submitting to) will require you to follow a specific citation style, so check your guidelines or ask your instructor.

In some cases, you may have to choose a citation style for yourself. Make sure to pick one style and use it consistently:

• APA Style is widely used in the social sciences and beyond.
• MLA style is common in the humanities.
• Chicago notes and bibliography , common in the humanities
• Chicago author-date , used in the (social) sciences
• There are many other citation styles for different disciplines.

If in doubt, check with your instructor or read other papers from your field of study to see what style they follow.

In most styles, your citations consist of:

• Brief in-text citations at the relevant points in the text
• A reference list or bibliography containing full information on all the sources you’ve cited

In-text citations most commonly take the form of parenthetical citations featuring the last name of the source’s author and its year of publication (aka author-date citations).

An alternative to this type of in-text citation is the system used in numerical citation styles , where a number is inserted into the text, corresponding to an entry in a numbered reference list.

There are also note citation styles , where you place your citations in either footnotes or endnotes . Since they’re not embedded in the text itself, these citations can provide more detail and sometimes aren’t accompanied by a full reference list or bibliography.

A reference list (aka “Bibliography” or “Works Cited,” depending on the style) is where you provide full information on each of the sources you’ve cited in the text. It appears at the end of your paper, usually with a hanging indent applied to each entry.

The information included in reference entries is broadly similar, whatever citation style you’re using. For each source, you’ll typically include the:

• Author name
• Publication date
• Container (e.g., the book an essay was published in, the journal an article appeared in)
• Location (e.g., a URL or DOI , or sometimes a physical location)

The exact information included varies depending on the source type and the citation style. The order in which the information appears, and how you format it (e.g., capitalization, use of italics) also varies.

Most commonly, the entries in your reference list are alphabetized by author name. This allows the reader to easily find the relevant entry based on the author name in your in-text citation.

In numerical citation styles, the entries in your reference list are numbered, usually based on the order in which you cite them. The reader finds the right entry based on the number that appears in the text.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

Because each style has many small differences regarding things like italicization, capitalization , and punctuation , it can be difficult to get every detail right. Using a citation generator can save you a lot of time and effort.

Scribbr offers citation generators for both APA and MLA style. Both are quick, easy to use, and 100% free, with no ads and no registration required.

Just input a URL or DOI or add the source details manually, and the generator will automatically produce an in-text citation and reference entry in the correct format. You can save your reference list as you go and download it when you’re done, and even add annotations for an annotated bibliography .

Once you’ve prepared your citations, you might still be unsure if they’re correct and if you’ve used them appropriately in your text. This is where Scribbr’s other citation tools and services may come in handy:

Plagiarism Checker

Citation Checker

Citation Editing

Plagiarism means passing off someone else’s words or ideas as your own. It’s a serious offense in academia. Universities use plagiarism checking software to scan your paper and identify any similarities to other texts.

When you’re dealing with a lot of sources, it’s easy to make mistakes that could constitute accidental plagiarism. For example, you might forget to add a citation after a quote, or paraphrase a source in a way that’s too close to the original text.

Using a plagiarism checker yourself before you submit your work can help you spot these mistakes before they get you in trouble. Based on the results, you can add any missing citations and rephrase your text where necessary.

Try out the Scribbr Plagiarism Checker for free, or check out our detailed comparison of the best plagiarism checkers available online.

Scribbr Plagiarism Checker

Scribbr’s Citation Checker is a unique AI-powered tool that automatically detects stylistic errors and inconsistencies in your in-text citations. It also suggests a correction for every mistake.

Currently available for APA Style, this is the fastest and easiest way to make sure you’ve formatted your citations correctly. You can try out the tool for free below.

If you need extra help with your reference list, we also offer a more in-depth Citation Editing Service.

Our experts cross-check your in-text citations and reference entries, make sure you’ve included the correct information for each source, and improve the formatting of your reference page.

If you want to handle your citations yourself, Scribbr’s free Knowledge Base provides clear, accurate guidance on every aspect of citation. You can see citation examples for a variety of common source types below:

And you can check out our comprehensive guides to the most popular citation styles:

At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).

Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

The abbreviation “ et al. ” (Latin for “and others”) is used to shorten citations of sources with multiple authors.

“Et al.” is used in APA in-text citations of sources with 3+ authors, e.g. (Smith et al., 2019). It is not used in APA reference entries .

Use “et al.” for 3+ authors in MLA in-text citations and Works Cited entries.

Use “et al.” for 4+ authors in a Chicago in-text citation , and for 10+ authors in a Chicago bibliography entry.

The Scribbr Citation Generator is developed using the open-source Citation Style Language (CSL) project and Frank Bennett’s citeproc-js . It’s the same technology used by dozens of other popular citation tools, including Mendeley and Zotero.

You can find all the citation styles and locales used in the Scribbr Citation Generator in our publicly accessible repository on Github .

APA format is widely used by professionals, researchers, and students in the social and behavioral sciences, including fields like education, psychology, and business.

Be sure to check the guidelines of your university or the journal you want to be published in to double-check which style you should be using.

MLA Style  is the second most used citation style (after APA ). It is mainly used by students and researchers in humanities fields such as literature, languages, and philosophy.

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Home / Guides / Citation Guides / Harvard Referencing / Harvard Referencing Style Examples

Harvard Referencing Style Examples

What is harvard referencing style.

Citing the work of others helps to make your work more impactful. It could be direct quotes , paraphrases of someone else’s ideas, statistical figures, or summaries of main points. There are different methods for crediting resources; Harvard referencing style (or Harvard style for short) is one such method.  

Harvard style follows the author-date system and includes two types of citations:

• in-text citations  
• references  

In-text citations

In-text citations  are included within the text of the main document. They are placed next to the information you are referencing, so the reader is clear on what information came from another source.

In-text citation example:

(Bloom, 2005) or Bloom (2005) wrote…

Every in-text citation has a corresponding reference in a reference list. A reference includes additional details about each source referenced. This enables the reader to refer to the original source, should they need to.  

The reference list is a detailed list of all the works consulted while writing. It is placed at the end of the document.  

Reference example for the above in-text citation:

Author Surname, Initials. (Publication Year) Title of the text in italics. Place of Publication: Publisher.

Bloom, H. (2005) Novelists and novels . Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers.

Below are Harvard referencing examples of in-text citations and reference list entries for the different kinds of sources that you might use.  

In-text citation structure and example:  

(Author Surname, Publication Year)

(Ozeki, 2013)  

Reference structure and example:  

Author Surname, Initials. (Publication Year) Title. Place of Publication: Publisher.  

Ozeki, R. (2013) A tale for the time being . New York: Penguin Books.  

Book with two or three authors

For books with two or three authors, the names of all the authors are given in both the in-text citation and the reference entry.  

(1 st Author Surname and 2 nd Author Surname, Publication Year)  

(Lodge and Wood, 2000)

1 st Author Surname, Initials. and 2 nd Author Surname, Initials. (Publication Year) Title of the text in italics. Place of Publication: Publisher.  

Lodge, D. and Wood, N. (2000) Modern criticism and theory: a reader. 2nd edn. Harlow: Longman.  

Book with four or more authors

If the number of authors is four or more, only the first author’s name is used followed by ‘et al.’ , italicised, which is Latin for ‘and others’.

(1 st Author Surname et al., Publication Year)

(Akmajian et al. , 2014)

Reference structure and example:

1 st Author Surname, Initials. e t al. (Publication Year) Title of the text in italics. Place of Publication: Publisher.

Akmajian, A. et al. (2014) Linguistics: an introduction to language and communication . 6th edn. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Book with translator  

For books with a translator, only the author’s name is included in the in-text reference.   The translator is given in the reference list entry, along with the language from which it was translated. This comes right after the title.

(Dostoevsky, 1993)

Author Surname, Initials. (Publication Year) Title of the text in italics. Translated from the Language by Translator Initials. Surname. Place of Publication: Publisher.  

Dostoevsky, F. (1993) Crime and punishment . Translated from the Russian by R. Pevear and L. Volokhonsky. London: Vintage.  

Journal articles

Journal articles are highly credible sources of information. The example below was authored by more than three individuals, so the term ‘ et al. ’ is used in lieu of listing all authors.

In-text citation structure and example:

(Lomolino et al., 2020)

Journal reference list entries often have extra information, such as article title, volume, issue number, page numbers, or a specific date.

With journals, the volume number follows the title. If there are any specific parts of the issue, numbered or organized according to months, these details are mentioned alongside in brackets.  

Author Surname, Initials. (Publication Year) ‘Article title’, Journal Name , Volume(Issue), Page(s). Available at: URL or DOI (Accessed: date).  

Lomolino, M. et al. (2013) ‘Of mice and mammoths: generality and antiquity of the island rule’, Journal of Biogeography , 40(8), pp. 1427-1439. Available at: https://www.jstor/org/stable/23463664 (Accessed: 10 September 2020).

Newspaper or magazine

(Ingle, 2020)

Author Surname, Initials. (Publication Year) ‘Article title’, Newspaper/Magazine Name , Day Month Published, Page(s). Available at: URL or DOI (Accessed: date).  

Ingle, S. (2020) ‘Geraint Thomas insists he has nothing to prove at road world championships’, The Guardian, 24 September. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/sprot/2020/sep/24/geraint-thomas-insists-he-has-nothing-to-prove-at-road-world-championships-cycling (Accessed: 11 October 2020).

  For online articles, you should always include the URL and date of access.

Social media and other online sources

(Author/Poster Name, Publication Year)

(Cramer, 2020)

References for social media posts have a similar format to online articles. However, sometimes they don’t have a true ‘title’. For example, for Twitter posts, the full text of the tweet is used as the title, unless the tweet is overly long.

Author/Poster Surname, Initial(s). [@Handle] (Publication year) Content of Post [Social Media Site] Day Month Published. Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).

Cramer, K. [@SenKevinCramer] (2020) Supreme Court vacancies are an important issue to the people I serve [Twitter] 24 September. Available at: https://twitter.com/SenKevinCramer/status/1308915548244398081 (Accessed: 25 September 2020).

The format for citing social media is different than the format for citing regular websites and web pages. This guide on how to cite a website in Harvard style provides details on how to cite web content that is not posted on social media.

(Image Creator or Photographer Surname, Publication Year)

(Pinneo, 2020)

Print reference structure:  

Author, Initial(s). (Year) Title of the Image [Photograph]. Place of Publication: Publisher (if available).

Online reference structure and example:

If the image is on the Internet, then the place of publication and the publisher name are replaced by the image URL and access date.

Author, Initial(s). (Year) Title of the Image .   Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).  

Pinneo, B.J. (2020) Dusty dreams . Available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/2020/09/dusty-dreams/ (Accessed: 23 September 2020).

In-text reference structure and example:  

(Film Title , Year Released )

( Pride & Prejudice , 2005)

For films, the title of the film is used in place of the author name.  

Title of the Film (Year Released) Directed by Director Initial. Surname. Available at: Name of Streaming Service (Accessed: Day Month Year).  

Pride & Prejudice (2005) Directed by J. Wright. UK: Universal Pictures. Available at: Netflix (Accessed: 29 September 2020).

Published October 29, 2020.

Harvard Formatting Guide

Harvard Formatting

• et al Usage
• Direct Quotes
• In-text Citations
• Multiple Authors
• Page Numbers
• Writing an Outline
• View Harvard Guide

Reference Examples

• View all Harvard Examples

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Harvard Referencing Examples

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Free Harvard Referencing Generator

Generate accurate Harvard reference lists quickly and for FREE, with MyBib!

🤔 What is a Harvard Referencing Generator?

A Harvard Referencing Generator is a tool that automatically generates formatted academic references in the Harvard style.

It takes in relevant details about a source -- usually critical information like author names, article titles, publish dates, and URLs -- and adds the correct punctuation and formatting required by the Harvard referencing style.

The generated references can be copied into a reference list or bibliography, and then collectively appended to the end of an academic assignment. This is the standard way to give credit to sources used in the main body of an assignment.

👩‍🎓 Who uses a Harvard Referencing Generator?

Harvard is the main referencing style at colleges and universities in the United Kingdom and Australia. It is also very popular in other English-speaking countries such as South Africa, Hong Kong, and New Zealand. University-level students in these countries are most likely to use a Harvard generator to aid them with their undergraduate assignments (and often post-graduate too).

🙌 Why should I use a Harvard Referencing Generator?

A Harvard Referencing Generator solves two problems:

• It provides a way to organise and keep track of the sources referenced in the content of an academic paper.
• It ensures that references are formatted correctly -- inline with the Harvard referencing style -- and it does so considerably faster than writing them out manually.

A well-formatted and broad bibliography can account for up to 20% of the total grade for an undergraduate-level project, and using a generator tool can contribute significantly towards earning them.

⚙️ How do I use MyBib's Harvard Referencing Generator?

Here's how to use our reference generator:

• If citing a book, website, journal, or video: enter the URL or title into the search bar at the top of the page and press the search button.
• Choose the most relevant results from the list of search results.
• Our generator will automatically locate the source details and format them in the correct Harvard format. You can make further changes if required.
• Then either copy the formatted reference directly into your reference list by clicking the 'copy' button, or save it to your MyBib account for later.

MyBib supports the following for Harvard style:

🍏 What other versions of Harvard referencing exist?

There isn't "one true way" to do Harvard referencing, and many universities have their own slightly different guidelines for the style. Our generator can adapt to handle the following list of different Harvard styles:

• Cite Them Right
• Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU)
• University of the West of England (UWE)

Daniel is a qualified librarian, former teacher, and citation expert. He has been contributing to MyBib since 2018.