In-Text Citations
There are many different sources that you can use in your writing. A book is quite different from a website and a website is quite different from a piece of music, yet all could be used as sources. One of the aims of referencing is to help the reader to find the source if they want to see it for themselves. So you need to link your in-text citation to sufficient detail in the reference list so that the source can be found. What goes into the in-text citation?
- The author [creator] of the source - this might be the author of the book, the person who created the website, or the artist playing the piece of music etc.
- The year of creation
- The page number(s) - if you are using a specific quote or idea (and the source has page numbers)
It'll look like:
"...Harvard referencing isn't really one style at all (Smith, 2019)" or
"Smith (2019 p.6) states that 'Harvard referencing isn't actually a style'"
You'd think a name and a year might be simple, right? There are some rules to follow however.
- Use a comma after the name and before the year
- For a source with one author, only the surname is required e.g (Smith, 2019)
- If there are two authors, use both authors' surnames e.g (Smith and Jones, 2019)
- When there are three or more authors, use 1st author's surname and et al, e.g Smith et al (2019). Et al is a Latin abbreviation (et alii (masculine plural), or et aliae (feminine plural), meaning "and others". This saves you from having to type out a long list of authors every time you cite a source with more than two authors
- If there's a corporate [an organisation] author, instead of a personal author, use that e.g. (Education and Training Boards Ireland, 2019)
- For sources where there is no author given, use the title in italics e.g (Style manual for authors, editors and printers, 2002)
- If there is no date of creation, then use n.d. (for no date) e.g. (Smith, n.d.)
- If you are quoting from a source, include "p." for page number (if available) e.g (Smith, 2019, p. 6)
- When the quote runs over two pages use "pp." instead of "p." e.g (Smith, 2019, pp. 6-7
- if you have sources from the same authors published in the same year, use "a" - for the first source cited, "b"for the 2nd source cited, "c" for the 3rd source cited...) to distinguish them e.g (Smith, 2019a), (Smith, 2019b), (Smith, 2019c)...
- If you use two sources to provide the same information, use a semi-colon (;) to separate the sources in the in-text citation, with the more recent first e.g (Smith, 2019; Jones, 2018)
