Essay Writing - REFERENCES & QUOTES

An essential technique when writing essays (and later dissertations) is the proper inclusion of quotations and references in the text, with a comprehensive list of references at the end. This demonstrates that you are familiar with the key texts from the literature. If you do not acknowledge your sources properly you also run the risk of being accused of plagiarism.

In the social sciences the convention is not to use footnotes, but to include the surname of the author and the date of the publication in the text. Full details of the publication, including the name of the author, date, title, publisher, and place of publication are placed in the list of references at the end of your essay. The conventions you should follow in your essay are the same as the conventions used by authors of books, chapters and journal articles in the social sciences.

To see how to reference different types of publication in your essay, examine the following extract from an article published in Sociological Research Online, together with the relevant references listed at the end.

The psychological, economic and societal consequences of youth unemployment have been extensively studied (Furnham 1994; Petersen and Mortimer 1994; Jackson 1985; Allen and Waton 1986; Green et al 1997). Such studies have shown that young people experience either 'extended' or 'fractured' transitions (Wallace 1987; Allatt and Yeadle 1992; Fend 1994; Coles 1995; Williamson 1997a).

'Extended transitions refer to the fact that the attainment of employment, leaving home and setting up new households in the 1990s is much more likely to take place at a later age than in previous decades ... [and that] young people are economically dependent upon their families for longer periods of time ... Fractured transitions refer to situations in which young people move from one status position, without managing to attain a secure, stable or positive outcome in another. So, for instance, young people may leave education but not obtain a job ... At their worst, fractured transitions result in long-term and chronic unemployment, dislocation and estrangement from families, and homelessness' (Coles 1995:30-31).

References
ALLATT, P. and YEADLE, S. (1992) Youth unemployment and the family: voices of disordered times, London: Routledge.
ALLEN, Sh. and WATON, A. (1986) The effects of unemployment: experience and response, in Sh. Allen, A. Waton, K. Purcell and St. Wood (eds), The experience of unemployment, pp. 1-16, London: Macmillan.
COLES, B. (1995) Youth and social policy: youth citizenship and young careers, London: UCL Press Limited.
FEND, H. (1994) "The historical context of transition to work and youth unemployment", in C. Petersen and J.T. Mortimer (eds), Youth unemployment and society, pp. 77-94 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
FURNHAM, A. (1994) "The psychological consequences of youth unemployment", in C. Petersen and J. T. Mortimer (eds), Youth unemployment and society, pp. 199-226Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
GREEN J. K., MULROY S., and O' NEILL M. (1997), "Young people and prostitution from a youth service perspective", in D.Barrett (ed.), Child prostitution in Britain, London: The Children's Society, pp. 90-105.
JACKSON, M. P. (1985) Youth unemployment, London: Croom Helm.
PETERSEN, A. C. and MORTIMER, J. T. (eds) (1994) Youth unemployment and society, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
WALLACE, Cl. (1987) For richer, for poorer: young people in and out of work, London: Tavistock Publications.
WILLIAMSON, H. (1997a) Youth and policy: contexts and consequences. Young men, transition and social exclusion, Aldershot: Ashgate.
WILLIAMSON, H. (1997b), "Status Zero youth and the 'underclass': some considerations", in R. MacDonald, (1997) (ed), Youth, the 'underclass' and social exclusion, London: Routledge, pp. 70-82.

Books and chapters

Notice that although just the surnames and dates are included in the text, in the list of references full information about publications is given. You will see that when a chapter in a book is referenced the author of the chapter is included in the text, and then in the references the editors of the book and the page numbers of the chapter are included too.

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More than one author

You will note that if there is just one author or two joint authors, then the authors surnames are included in the text, e.g. Allatt and Yeadle 1992. However, once there are more than two authors, just the surname of the first author is included in the text and 'et al' is used to indicate the other authors, e.g. Green et al 1997.

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More than one reference by the same author

If you are including references to two texts by the same author with the same date of publication, then it is important to enable your reader to distinguish between them. Note how the writers do this in the extract above with the two references by Williamson.

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Quotations

Look at the extract above, and notice how the writers include a quotation. Because this is a relatively long quotation, the writers have chosen to indent it in the text. They have also given the author's surname, date of the publication and page numbers. Although page numbers are not necessary when you are referring to a book, book chapter or journal article, they are essential when you include a quotation.

If you do not reference quotations properly you run the risk of being accused of plagiarism.

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Referencing journal articles

In the example above the authors did not make any references to articles in journals. However, the procedure is very similar to referencing a chapter in a book. Include the author's surname and date of publication in the text e.g. (Bernhardt 1993). In the list of references at the end the full details of the title of the journal article, the title of the journal, the volume of the journal and the page numbers should be given. For example:BERNHARDT, E.M. (1993) Fertility and employment. European Sociological Review, 9 ,1, 25-42.You will note that titles of books and journals are usually italicised in the list of references at the end of an article or essay.

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Referencing Internet Sites

You should note that there is still a certain amount of debate about the correct way to reference internet sites and also that you should beware of using material from the internet in your essay without considering who it has been produced by and for what purpose. However, a useful format is as follows:Author/editor, Year. Title[online]. Location of server: Publisher/maintainer of site(if known). Available from: URL [Access date].

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Referencing texts that have been referenced by someone else

Students sometimes ask how to include references that they have found in other texts. For example, in the text book by Fulcher and Scott, in the chapter on Deviance and Control (p153), there is a quotation by Becker in which he defines deviance.
What should you do if you want to include this in your essay and indicate that you have not read Becker's 1953 work 'Becoming a Marihuana User' but that you have taken the quote from your text book?
The correct way to do it is to refer to Becker 1953, with the correct page number, in the text of your essay. Then, in your Bibliography or list of references at the end of your essay, you should make it clear where you read this quotation from Becker as follows: