Writing References

Part 1 - English Language Sources

(Click here to go to Part 2 - Non-English (Japanese) Sources)

When you write a paper or report, you need to give references to the sources of information. There are many different styles of writing references, for example, the MLA (modern Language Association) style, and the APA (American Psychological Association) style, but all of them have the same basic information. At minimum, you should give the information below.

  1. Author
  2. Title
  3. Publisher
  4. Date of publication

Example 1:

Slobodkin, Lawrence B. A Citizen's Guide to Ecology. Oxford University Press. 2003.

Example 1 is a very simple example, listing the information for a book: Author, Date, Title, Publisher. In some cases, you will need more information. If the source is a short piece (such as an essay in a book or an article in a newspaper), you will need to list two titles, one for the essay and article, and one for the book or newspaper. You might also need to list the editor.

Example 2

Friedman, Thomas. "An Arab TV Station Nourishes Democracy." The New York Times. February 7, 2004: sec.2: 1.

When you use information from the internet, you need to add two more pieces of information:

  1. URL (the internet address)
  2. The date you accessed(looked at )the information.

In many cases, it isn't possible to find all the information, so just include as much as you can. You will always have at least the URL and the date accessed, and you can always find a title or at least the first line at the top of the page.

Example 3

Brown, Lester R. " China Losing War With Advancing Deserts" August 5, 2003. Earth Policy Institute <http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update26.htm> Accessed May 7, 2005.

Example 3 contains the following information: Author, Title, Date of Publication, Publisher, URL, Date Accessed.

Example 4

Earthhope Action Network. "Pennsylvania's Dirty Coal Power on Its Way Out". December 9, 2004. <http://earthhopenetwork.net/Pennsylvania's_Dirty_Coal_Power_on_ Way_Out.htm > Accessed April 11, 2005.

In example 4, we don't know the specific author's name, we just know the group that made the web page. "Earthhope Action Network" is both the author and the publisher in this case, so Example 2 has the following information: Author/Publisher, Title, Date of Publication, URL, Date Accessed.

Example 5:

Environmental Protection Agency. "Mid-Atlantic States: 30 Years of Environmental Progress". <www.epa.gov/region3/annual_report/PDFs/CleanAir.pdf> Accessed April 11, 2005.

In example 5, again, there is no specific author, just a group which is both the author and the publisher. Unlike example 2, this one has no publication date. This is the information in example 4: Author/Publisher, Title, URL, Date Accessed.

FOR MORE HELP

These examples are just a starting point, and they don't tell you everything you need to know. There are many style guides which give details on how to do references for different types of materials--books, magazines, CD-roms, web sites. For your writing at SILS, I recommend that you buy a guide such as Rules of Thumb (Jay Silverman, Elaine Hughes, Diana Roberts Wienbroer. 2002. McGraw-Hill.) or A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Kate L. Turabian. 1996. University of Chicago Press.) You can also find style guides in the SILS library (3rd floor of Buidling 22) and at the Writing Center (1st floor of Building 19).

There are also many on-line guides to writing references.