Citations

What is a Citation?
A citation consists of the surname of an author, and the year of publication, commonly in brackets:

What is a Reference?
A reference at the end of the text will give more extensive bibliographical information on the same source:

Lynch, B. K. (1996). Language Program Evaluation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Correct and relevant use of citations is a fundamental tool in academic writing. All academic writing is constructed on references to other peoples' work. Citations give specific evidence and emphasise how you are connected to other academic work or sources. On the other hand, general comments with no source are not recommended in academic writing.

Simple citations
If you are using an idea, an example, a quotation, statistics, summarizing information from somebody else's work, then you put a citation into your text. By far the most common method is simply to use the information and then put the citation in brackets afterwards. e.g.

Numerous studies and publications show that the major focus has tended to be on the development of tests (Bachman, 1990).

Citations with more than one author
If a number of authors have made a particular point, then you can mention more than one author in your citation: e.g.

It has been argued that an uninformed outsider evaluator will have no vested interest or particular perspective to influence their reporting (Worthen & Sanders, 1987; Beretta, 1992; Weir & Roberts, 1994).

According to...
If you want to give more prominence to the author who you are citing, you can introduce a citation like this:

Smith (1994) proposes that: "what is needed is to take account of multiple perspectives - of participants or stakeholders with acceptability and success being matters of degree, and related to users in context." He believes that both insiders and outsiders should be involved in the evaluation process.

Notice that the author includes the quotation and then goes on to mention a further point: ('He believes that...')

Supporting this view and referring specifically to a self-access language learning environment, Gardner & Miller (1999) also identify the benefits in terms of additional perspectives brought to an evaluation by an "external agent".

Citations for Edited Volumes
If you are referring to an edited volume, then it is possible simply to cite the first author and the 'et al' convention - meaning 'and others':

In education in general, evaluation has played a vital role for more than one hundred years (Madaus et al, 1983).

Madaus, G. F., Stufflebeam, D., & Scriven, M. S. (eds.). (1983). Evaluation Models: Viewpoints on Educational & Human Services Evaluation . Boston: Klujer-Nijhoff.

Secondary citations
Sometimes a text you are reading will make a reference to another author’s work.

Self-access centres (SACs), as examples of post-industrial initiatives (Heuring, 1997 quoting Toffler, 1980) that allow for flexible access to learning resources, are playing an increasingly central role in educational systems - particularly in Europe and Asia.

In your text, you should show whose ideas you are citing (Toffler, 1980), and where you read about them (Heuring, 1997).In your bibliography, DO NOT list Toffler because you haven’t read his book. Your bibliography must, however, list the book in which you read about his ideas, in this case Heuring.

At the end of your essay you should list all the references you have cited in your text. You may head this Bibliography or References. In this, section, all books and articles should be given in alphabetical order by author’s surname. You must give the year of publication and the name of the publisher. All this information appears on the front or back title page of a book and should be listed as in these examples.

Books: The sequence of details for books is family name ® initials ® year of publication ® title ® city of publication ® name of publishing company:

Quirk, R., & Greenbaum, S. 1973 A University Grammar of English. London: Longman.

Toffler, A. (1980). The Third Wave. New York: Morrow.

Tyler, R. W. (1949). Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction.

Journals: If the work you read was an article in a journal, you must give the name of the article and the journal, its volume number and issue number and page range of the article, e.g.

Morrison, B. J. (1995). Working in groups in Beijing & Hong Kong: experience of a group-access approach to language learning. In Hong Kong Polytechnic University: Working Papers in ELT & Applied Linguistics 1(1) (pp. 105-118). Hong Kong: Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Edited Volume: If your source is an article in an edited volume (i.e. not a whole book written by one author), then you must give details of the article and book as in this example:

Fitzgerald, S., Morrall, A., & Morrison, B. (1996). Catering for individual learning styles: experiences of orienting students in an Asian self-access centre. In L. Dickinson (ed.), Proceedings of the International Conference Autonomy 2000: The Development of Learning Independence in Language Learning" (pp. 55-69). Bangkok, Thailand: The British Council.

A newspaper/magazine article is listed according to the title of the newspaper/magazine, e.g.

South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) 1999, 05 May.

Name of author of site, (or if no author, institution/company name) + Date (if available) + Title in italics and single inverted commas + @ followed by full www address of page cited.

Hong Kong Polytechnic University. 1997. ‘Departments and Centres at PolyU’. @ http://www.polyu.edu.hk/cpa/NewHome/Depart.Depart.htm

Johns, T. 1997. ‘Lingua Multilingual Concordancer’ @ http://sun1.bham.ac.uk/johnstf/lingua.htm

The citation consists of: Name of author of site, or if no author, institution/company name; date (if available).