Three Tips for Citing References like a Researcher

“One author says this about wolves: ‘in Scotland the species certainly lasted much longer’ (Yalden 1999).”

Oh dear! Do your citations look like this one?

Sometimes citations can be technically right, but still look bad, and make it obvious that you are new to Academic Writing. Never fear! There are three tips which will have you citing like a researcher in no time.

1.    Paraphrase, Don’t quote
After you have left school, the rule is don’t quote in essays. You need to explain ideas in your own words. Don’t worry if you can’t use the same high level of language as your source, the important thing is to show you understand:

“One author argues that the wolf was killed off earlier in England than it was in Scotland (Yalden 1999, p.168).”

This will get you more marks than the reference at the top of the article, because you are proving that you understand what the source says.

2.    Use Off-hand Citations
The next most important thing is to try to incorporate citations into your discussion as much as possible:

“Pluskowski (2006) argues that the wolf was extirpated to protect deer in royal forests.”

Here instead of the citation being separate from the sentence, we have completely integrated it. Because we have used the surname of the author in the discussion, we don’t need it in the citation. All we need there is the publication date in brackets. A casual reader might not even realise that they are seeing an academic citation here.

3.    Think about page numbers
The rules for page numbers in academic writing are complicated.

In a citation, you need to include a page number for a book, but not for an academic article in a journal, or for a website. You use p. for one page (e.g. p.14), or pp. for multiple pages (e.g. pp.15-29).

“The wolf probably became extinct in England during the fourteenth century (Yalden 1999, p.168; Pluskowski 2006).”

Here we included a page number for Yalden (a book) but not for Pluskowski (an article).

Just to confuse you however, in the List of References section, you never include the page numbers for a book, unless it is a book made up of articles by different scholars. However, articles in journals do always need to include page numbers:

List of References
Pluskowski, A., 2006. Where are the wolves? Investigating the scarcity of European grey wolf (Canis lupus lupus) remains in medieval archaeological contexts and its implications. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 16(4), pp.279–295.

Yalden, D., 1999. The history of British mammals, Cambridge: T & A D Poyser Natural History.

If you need to improve your Academic Writing skills, consider taking a distance learning course with us at ADL. Our Research Project course gives you all the support you need to research and write a professional dissertation on a subject of your choice.

LEAVE A REPLY

BLOG CATEGORIES

MOST POPULAR

Easter 2025 Opening Hours

Easter Opening Hours We will close on Thursday 17th April at 4.30pm and then re- open again on Tuesday 22nd April at 9am due to the Easter break. Feel free to email as normal or leave a message on live chat or on our answerphone 01227 789649 over the weekend and we will get back

Read More »

Christmas 2024 Opening Hours

Merry Christmas, here are the ADL opening hours for Christmas 2024: Monday 23rd December – 9am to 5pm Tuesday 24th December – CLOSED Christmas eve Wednesday 25th December – CLOSED Christmas DAY Thursday 26th December – CLOSED Boxing Day Friday 27th December – CLOSED Monday 30th December – 10am -4pm Tuesday 31st December – 10am

Read More »

At ADL we focus on helping you learn! You have the opportunity to interact one to one with our tutors, so you can approach learning in whatever way and speed that best suits you. This individual service not normally found at most colleges, contributes to successful learning. You decide how you wish to receive your

Read More »

Water Gardening Site Selection

Things to Consider When Selecting Your Water Garden Location Have you ever dreamed of building a Water Garden, but just didn’t know where to start?  ADL’s online certificate course in Water Gardeng provides the necessary knowledge and skills to help you get started. The first thing is to decide on the location of your water

Read More »

SIGNUP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER

Scroll to Top

REQUEST A CALLBACK

To speak to one of our course advisors, please enter your name and phone number below and click the "Please Call Me" button. We will call you back as soon as possible!

By submitting this form, I provide my consent to ADL to contact me via email or telephone, regarding the course I selected. All information provided is protected in conformity with our Privacy Policy.

CONTACT US

required fields are marked with *

By submitting this form, I provide my consent to ADL to contact me via email or telephone, regarding the course I selected. All information provided is protected in conformity with our Privacy Policy.