A short outline of Harvard style referencing

How to Proofread your Thesis or Dissertation

Wed, 26 Feb 2020 21:10:08 GMT

Proofreading your thesis or dissertation

Your dissertation, research paper or PhD thesis is the result of many months, if not years, of hard work. It is the most important piece of work and culminates years of study, whether it’s a first degree, a master’s or a PhD.

It is the final, and possibly the most important, piece of work that will determine the final grade of your qualification.

It is, then, fair to say that your work should be presented in the highest standard possible before submitting. That doesn’t just include the contents of your work, but also how it is presented.

You may have spent months, or years, presenting your content, reading, writing, and more writing, carrying out thorough research, and presenting your argument in a clear and logical manner. It would be a terrible disservice to yourself if your work is downgraded because of bad spelling and grammar, or inconsistent layout and formatting of your document.

That is why it is worth taking the time to proofread your thesis or dissertation, or get someone else to proofread it for you, perhaps a family member or another colleague.

If English is not your first language, or if writing is simply not one of your strengths, then this is where a professional proofreader comes in. If you have a learning difficulty such as dyslexia, then your educational institute may recommend that you use the services of a professional proofreader prior to submission.

So, I have put together a list of recommendations to refer to before submitting your work, and to help you get those grades you deserve.

Please read more about my student proofreading services.

1 Allow plenty of time before submission

If you decide to proofread your document yourself, it’s always a good idea to give yourself a break from it for a few days first, even just one day. That way, you can approach your work with a reasonably fresh pair of eyes and pick up those silly errors that you might have missed first time around.

If you do decide to use a proofreader, don’t wait until you have finished writing before trying to find one. Many proofreaders are booked up for weeks at a time, especially around end of term time. There will always be some who can promise a fast turnaround, but there is no fast route to proofreading a thesis of over 40K words! Proofreading is a slow and careful process. So, as a general guide, you should allow your proofreader a day to proofread 5000 words.

Once your proofreader is finished and has sent your files back, be prepared to work through any comments or queries the proofreader may have made as they worked through your document. These often include queries as to intended meaning of sentences or phrases, which may need rephrasing/rewriting and which, again, takes time. And then you need to allow time for printing and binding.

2 Thesis structure

Once you have had a break for a while, look again at the overall structure. Check that the introduction summarises your work properly. Check that there a logical progression through the various sections. You might have carried out lots of editing over the previous week – check that you haven’t mistakenly left any important points out that might affect the logical flow of your argument.

3 Formatting

Check that your document is formatted correctly. For instance:

Are your headings and subheadings all in the same style? Are they all the same font size etc?
Is the automatic numbering of headings/paragraphs consistent? It is very easy to miss errors in automatic numbering, especially the subheadings.
Have your checked the numbering of the tables, figures to ensure they are consistent? For example, if you are referring to Table 3 on p. 322, check it is on the correct page!
Have you checked that the captions of said tables and figures are correct?
Table of Headings. Is the ToH correctly set out? Have you updated it to ensure all page numbers are correctly displayed?
Is your page numbering set out correctly? Have you even inserted page numbers?

4 Consistency in style

It is often a good idea to create a style sheet as you go along. This will include:

Use of capitals and hyphenation
How you use numbers to ensure they are consistent throughout, for example using words for numbers from one to nine, but figures from 10 and over.
British English or American English spellings? Whichever style you use, it must be consistent, for example behaviour/behavior.
Consistency in -ise/-ize word endings. Something that just about every proofreader sees is the mixture of realise or realize!
How you use italics – particularly important in scientific and technical writing.

A proofreader will use various tools to help tidy up such things as double spaces, removing unnecessary spaces, ensuring you are using single/double quotes consistently, changing dashes to n-dashes, searching for paragraphs without closing punctuation, etc.

5 Spelling, punctuation and grammar

One of the final, and most important, things you must do is run a full spelling and grammar check. However, be warned! It will catch the obvious errors, but will not catch them all.

Your spellchecker will not pick up such things as homophones – words that sound the same but are spelt differently. Such examples are site/sight, bear/bare, sow/sew. Neither will it catch words that are simply wrong, eg form instead of from, god instead of good (and I have seen this error many times).

6 Acronyms and abbreviations

One of the most common issues I come across when proofreading academic papers is the wrong or inconsistent use of acronyms or initialisms.

An acronym (or initialism) is a shortened or contracted form of a term that is used in its place.

When a term is first used, it is written out in full with the abbreviation after. Then, the abbreviation is used throughout the paper. Let’s use the BBC as an example. The first time we come across the term we would write the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The abbreviation is written afterwards in brackets and then you would continue to say BBC throughout.

If your document is a lengthy thesis or a book, you might decide to define an acronym again in full the first time it is mentioned in each chapter.

If you are using a lot of acronyms or abbreviations, it is sometimes useful to provide a list at the front of your thesis or book. This not only helps your reader to refer back to a defined term, but it will help you to cross reference your defined terms as well.

A good practice, if you want to ensure you are consistent in your paper, is to do a global search for the full term and then replace it with the abbreviation.

Referencing systems

You will no doubt have used a reference system in your thesis or dissertation. Whatever style you have used, it is important that you check it is consistent throughout . For instance,

et alia - ensure that it is written et al. throughout. Very often the full stop is missing, so you might want to do a full global search for et al (including a space after the al).
if using the author-date system (eg Harvard), ensure all in-text citations are consistent (Ford, 2018). If using a comma, ensure a comma is used consistently.

Check the bibliography to ensure it is in alphabetical order and formatted properly according to your reference system.

Again, these things will (or should) be picked up by your proofreader, but if you are proofreading your document yourself these are little things you need to check.

Each reference system, whether Harvard, APA, MLA, etc, will have its own style which you need to adhere to. An excellent source that I often refer to, especially for Harvard referencing, is the Anglia Ruskin University website:

https://library.aru.ac.uk/referencing/referencing.htm

https://www.citethisforme.com/uk/styles/harvard-referencing-generator/anglia-university

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is using someone else's work in your thesis or dissertation without giving them full acknowledgement. This includes copying text from the internet and passing it off as your own original work.

Universities will check for plagiarism using a software called Turnitin. You will find also that many examiners are good at recognising text that isn't your own, for example when the writing style changes. This includes paraphrasing.

Ultimately, plagiarism is not only unethical, but it is illegal. Don't risk it!

Style guide for authors when writing manuscripts. Top copy-editing tips.

Sun, 29 Dec 2019 15:55:44 GMT

Copy-editing tips for authors

I have worked freelance as a copy-editor since 2003 and, during that time, I have noticed the same grammatical errors crop up in manuscripts. I therefore decided to put together this guide to help potential book authors and writers.

The purpose of this article is not to provide a comprehensive guide to using the English language. Rather, it provides a set of basic rules for authors so that their manuscript meets publishing industry standards.

Obviously, it is not possible to cover every exception to these basic rules and therefore judgement and a common-sense approach must be exercised.

Contents

Using Commas When A Person or Group Is Directly Addressed

When To Capitalise A Term Of Address

When To Capitalise “Mum” and “Dad”

Dialogue

Quoting Within Dialogue

Punctuation Before and After Dialogue

Ok/Ok/Okay

Words That Are Not Words

En Dashes and Hyphens

Em Dashes

Ellipses

Exclamation Marks and Question Marks

Interjections In Sentences

Numbers

Times

How To Punctuate Years

Apostrophes With Numbers

Commas

Using Commas When A Person or Group Is Directly Addressed

In dialogue, when a person is addressed this phrase should be separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma. This will frequently be a person’s name, but it may also be any term that addresses an individual or a group.

These will most commonly be at the beginning or end of a sentence.

Example 1 – names and terms

Incorrect

"Gemma can you come here?"

"That’s very kind of you John."

"Not a problem pal."

Correct

"Gemma, can you come here?"

"That’s very kind of you, John."

"Not a problem, pal."

Example 2 – groups

Incorrect

"Time to go you lot."

"Ladies and gentlemen welcome."

Correct

"Time to go, you lot."

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome."

On some occasions, the address will appear in the middle of a sentence. In such cases, a comma should be either side.

Example 3 – mid-sentence

Incorrect

"Just bear with me officer while I look for it."

"Come on lads we’re going."

Correct

"Just bear with me, officer, while I look for it."

"Come on, lads, we’re going."

When to Capitalise A Term of Address

Terms of address should only ever be capitalised if they are a proper noun – that is to say, if they refer to a person or people by a specific title.

Most of the time this will be a given name, but any title used to address someone directly should also be capitalised. This can be a nickname, a title, an award, etc.

Example 1

Incorrect

"Listen, doctor, this is an emergency."

"You may be employee of the week, but that doesn’t give you the right to stroll about the place like you’re doing now."

Correct

"Listen, Doctor, this is an emergency."

"You may be Employee of the Week, but that doesn’t give you the right to stroll about the place like you’re doing now."

It is imperative to note that a title is only considered a proper noun if it is being used in place of the name or as part of the name.

If a person’s title is preceded by a determiner (e.g. a/the/many/every) then it is not a proper noun.

Example 2

Incorrect

"Listen to me, I’m the Prime Minister."

"The incumbent, senator Ernst, won by a landslide."

Correct

"Listen to me, I’m the prime minister."

"The incumbent, Senator Ernst, won by a landslide."

Please note that “sir” and “madam” are only considered proper nouns if they are used as a title.

Example 3

Incorrect

"I’ll be with you right away, Sir."

"Come this way, Madam."

"Have you seen the size of sir Lancelot’s scabbard?"

Correct

"I’ll be with you right away, sir."

"Come this way, madam."

"Have you seen the size of Sir Lancelot’s scabbard?"

When to Capitalise “Mum” and “Dad”

When you are using the word “Mum” or “Dad” to refer to a specific person, it must be capitalised just like any proper noun. The same also applies to similar terms that do the same job, i.e. Father, Mother, Grandpa, Nan, Mummy.

When one of these terms is used as a common noun, it should not be capitalised. A common noun can be differentiated from a proper noun in that it can be preceded by a determiner (a/the/many/his). If the term in question could not be replaced with a specific name this would indicate a common noun. For example, you would say “My dad…” when referring to him because you wouldn’t say “My John…”

Example 1 – common noun

Incorrect

"I went to visit my Dad at the weekend."

"My Mum’s coming over soon."

"Is your Father well, Jason?"

Correct

"I went to visit my dad at the weekend."

"My mum’s coming over soon."

"Is your father well, Jason?"

Example 2 – proper noun

Incorrect

"Thanks for your help in this, mum."

"It’s great to see you again, grandpa."

Correct

"Thanks for your help in this, Mum."

"It’s great to see you again, Grandpa."

Dialogue

Each time there is a new speaker, their dialogue must be placed on a new line. Multiple characters’ dialogue must never appear on the same paragraph.

If a character’s speech continues on to a new paragraph, the initial paragraph would not have a close quotation mark but there would be one of at the start of the following one.

When writing dialogue you will often use ‘tags’. These are verbs that link the spoken words with the remainder of the sentence. Dialogue should be linked with the tag using a comma.

If a full stop is used, this breaks the dialogue and the tag into two sentences and therefore does not make sense. See examples below:

Incorrect

“It’s been a long day.” She said.

Correct

“It’s been a long day,” she said.

In direct speech, punctuation should always be inside speech marks. Punctuation inside speech can be a comma, exclamation mark, question mark, en dash, ellipsis, or em dash. If there is no tag there should be a full stop.

Example 1 – speech not interacting with succeeding words (so full stop is needed)

Incorrect

“Yeah, I suppose so,” John sounded sarcastic.

Correct

“Yeah, I suppose so.” John sounded sarcastic.

Example 2 – speech that does interact with rest of sentence (so tag is needed)

Incorrect

“What was that?” He asked.

“Come, now!” She said.

Correct

“What was that?” he asked.

“Come, now!” she said.

Tags can be used at the start of a sentence before direct speech, for example:

He said, “What’s going on, my homeboy?”

Quoting Within Dialogue

Quotation can be used while not in dialogue unto itself. This may be a character quoting someone else while they speak, for example:

“John told me to ‘butt out’ of his business.”

“Mum sat me down and said, ‘If you want to be a gigolo, son, then go ahead’. It was all the advice I needed.”

In these instances, the quote should be marked with the opposite quotational marker (single or double) to that used for direct speech. Punctuation, unlike with dialogue, would go outside the speech markers. Note that these should only be used for direct speech – indirectly reported speech (e.g. he said that we may eat it) does not need quotation marks.

Punctuation Before and After Dialogue

Tags, the phrases before and after speech, should only ever be descriptions of the dialogue itself. If the phrases before or after speech do not describe it, they should be separate sentences, as shown with the examples below.

Incorrect

Ben nodded, “That’s true,” he said.

“What are you doing?” she turned to face her.

“Yes I know,” he remarked, “It’s a shame.”

Correct

Ben nodded. “That’s true,” he said.

“What are you doing?” She turned to face her.

“Yes I know,” he remarked. “It’s a shame.”

ok/OK/okay

A common issue in manuscripts is for ‘ok’ to be written all in lowercase. You may also find ‘Ok’ at the start of a sentence.

This is not acceptable: it must either be capitalised (OK) or written out as a word (okay). In ordinary English literature, examples of both kinds can be found. However, please ensure that there is consistency and that ‘ok’ is corrected in all places.

Incorrect

"This all looks ok to me."

“Ok then,” she said.

Correct

"This all looks okay to me."

"OK then," she said.

Words That Are Not Words

Alright is not a word. Do ensure it is corrected to ‘all right’ along the lines of the examples below.

Incorrect

"This seems alright to me."

"Alright, mate, how’s it going?"

Correct

"This seems all right to me."

"All right, mate, how’s it going?"

Similarly, anymore is not recognised as a word by any mainstream publishers, so this needs to be corrected accordingly.

Incorrect

"I don’t want to do this anymore."

"I can’t think of anymore reasons why."

Correct

"I don’t want to do this any more."

"I can’t think of any more reasons why."

En Dashes and Hyphens

A dash is not the same as a hyphen. Hyphens are the small lines (about half the size of a dash) which are written in the middle of the line to connect words or parts of words to make a new word, with no space either side, i.e. right-sided, thirty-two, three-part series.

Dashes can be categorised into two variants: an en dash and an em dash.

A en dash is the longer line used as punctuation in sentences coming in between words, with a space before and after the horizontal line – like this, and is often used instead of parentheses.

Incorrect

He said that the ‘firm’ - their name for the national crime squad - would pay for a rented flat in the north west of England and he could use both addresses depending where in the country he was deployed.

Correct

He said that the ‘firm’ – their name for the national crime squad – would pay for a rented flat in the north west of England and he could use both addresses depending where in the country he was deployed.

Em Dashes

Sometimes you may find instances where a hyphen is incorrectly used to indicate an abrupt change of thought or an interruption. Most of the time, this will appear in speech. This needs to be replaced with an em dash, shown in the examples below:

Example 1

Incorrect

"No. I’m -"

"You’re what?"

Correct

"No. I’m—"

"You’re what?"

Example 2

Incorrect

"Well why not, after all-" Darren hastily bit his tongue, thinking impatiently that it would be interesting to hear her mother’s explanation.

Correct

"Well why not, after all—" Darren hastily bit his tongue, thinking impatiently that it would be interesting to hear her mother’s explanation.

Some manuscripts may use em dashes throughout, in places where you would often find an en dash. As long as there is consistency this can be left as it is. For example, if the passage below appeared in a manuscript, this could be left alone, as long as em dashes were being employed in this manner throughout.

“Excuse me, miss?” a honey smooth voice said. His accent threw me—it was English but mixed with something else—was it French?

Please note that em dashes are never separated by spaces either side.

Ellipses

Ellipses should always be three dots, not two, four, five, or even more. In addition, manuscripts sometimes contain a mixture between inserted ellipses and ellipses which have been created by using three full stops. Manuscripts may also contain inconsistencies with some ellipses followed by a space and some not. Please ensure that all ellipses are the inserted variety and followed by a single space, like so:

Incorrect

"I mean, really busy...I just feel so overwhelmed."

"Listen.....They’re going!"

Correct

"I mean, really busy… I just feel so overwhelmed."

"Listen… They’re going!"

Exclamation Marks and Question Marks

Any time you come across more than one exclamation mark or question mark at the end of a sentence this must be corrected so it is just one. Likewise, the use of both a question mark and an exclamation mark together (?!) – known as an interrobang – is considered improper English, so this must be corrected.

Description will usually negate the need for both a question mark and exclamation mark, so it is advised to include the least obvious. If unsure, remember that in most cases an exclamation mark ‘trumps’ a question mark, although judgement is always recommended.

Incorrect

"Sometimes I wondered where he kept them all!!!!"

"What are you doing now, Lisa??"

Correct

"Sometimes I wondered where he kept them all!"

What are you doing now, Lisa?"

Interjections in Sentences

Interjections are words or phrases that express emotion and do not relate grammatically to the rest of the sentence. When they are contained within a sentence – as opposed to being written stand-alone – they should be separated with a comma. Words and phrases such as “hey”, “well”, “gosh” and “excuse me” are used as interjections.

Example 1 – single-word interjections

Incorrect

"Well I’m glad that’s over."

"Similarly this was not one John had seen before."

"Hey where are you going with that?"

Correct

"Well, I’m glad that’s over."

"Similarly, this was not one John had seen before."

"Hey, where are you going with that?"

Example 2 – phrases used as interjections

Incorrect

"Excuse me what is going on here?"

"I’d like to but goodness me it’s a long way."

Correct

"Excuse me, what is going on here?"

"I’d like to but, goodness me, it’s a long way."

Numbers

As far as fiction and narrative non-fiction is concerned, in almost all cases numbers should be written out, e.g. two, four, sixteen.

Compound numbers – between twenty-one and ninety-nine – must be hyphenated. When such numbers appear within a larger number they should still contain hyphens.

Example 1

Incorrect

David was twenty six years old.

In total there were a hundred and sixty eight people there.

Correct

David was twenty-six years old.

In total, there were a hundred and sixty-eight people there.

The only numbers that should be written in numerals are specific measurements of a technical nature, years, or precise currency amounts.

Example 2

An incident such as this hadn’t taken place since 1982.

The Mercedes had a 3.2 litre engine.

The time recorded was 12.7 seconds.

It cost £12.99 in total.

A sentence should never begin with a numeral. If a sentence begins with a number falling into the category of those in Example 2, the sentence should be rephrased.

Times

Times that are on the hour, half hour, or quarter hour should be written out as words

Example 1

Incorrect

The meeting was over by 5:30.

Proceedings began at around 2.00.

The match was an early kickoff, scheduled for 12:30.

Correct

The meeting was over by five-thirty.

Proceedings began at around two.

The match was an early kickoff, scheduled for twelve-thirty.

The standard UK English way to write a.m./am is shown in Example 2.

Example 2

Incorrect

John usually finished work at 6pm

As usual, Samir opened the shop at 9:00 am.

Correct

John usually finished work at 6 p.m.

As usual, Samir opened the shop at 9 a.m.

[Alternatively, you can omit the full stops between a.m. or p.m. so that it reads 6 pm or 9 am, with a space between the number and letter. Whichever style you choose, it must be used consistently.]

Precise times, which do not fall into the earlier categories, should be expressed using numerals and a full stop separating the numbers, not colons.

Example 3

The official time of death was 1.27 p.m.

Ben woke up to his alarm clock at 7.55 a.m.

How to Punctuate Years

Unlike most numbers, years would be written in their numeric form, i.e. 1963. If it referring to the decade there should be no apostrophe as it is simply a plural.

Incorrect

Steely Dan were the best band to come out of the 1970’s.

Correct

Steely Dan were the best band to come out of the 1970s.

However, an apostrophe may be used at the beginning of the year to indicate the omission of the century. Please ensure that is an apostrophe that is used and not an open quotation mark symbol:

Incorrect

Andy Cole was never as good after the 90s.

Andy Cole was never as good after the ‘90s.

Correct

Andy Cole was never as good after the ’90s.

When referring to a decade like this, it would also be acceptable to write it in prose-form (e.g. ‘the nineties’) and so it is advised to leave it in the same styling as the author’s original.

The decade should not be capitalised unless it used as a proper noun:

Incorrect

The Vietnam War was a real downer on the swinging sixties.

Correct

The Vietnam War was a real downer on the Swinging Sixties.

Apostrophes with Numbers

The apostrophe is seldom used to form a plural noun.

Incorrect: Since the 1980’s, the Thomas’s, both of whom have multiple PhD’s, sell old book’s and magazine’s at the fair on Saturday’s and Sunday’s.

Correct: Since the 1980s, the Thomases, both of whom have multiple PhDs, sell old books and magazines at the fair on Saturdays and Sundays.

Commas

Joining Commas

Joining commas join independent (sentence-like) clauses that have intervening conjunctions such as and, but, for and while, and their use is often discretionary.

I asked him several times to turn down the volume, but he ignored me.

The conjunction but joins two independent clauses, and in this example the comma is optional; it does no harm, but the sentence is sufficiently short to cope without it. The longer the clause preceding the conjunction, however, the greater the need for a comma –

I asked him several times in the course of the afternoon to turn down the volume of his damned stereo, but he ignored me.

Listing Commas

Listing commas separate items, actions or ideas in a series and are used to avoid unnecessary repetitions of the conjunctions and and or. For example, instead of writing –

He climbed into the car and fastened his seat belt and started the engine and drove off

We write –

He climbed into the car, fastened his seat belt, started the engine and drove off.

The listing comma is also used after all but the last in a string of adjectives –

After her jog, she took a long, hot, relaxing bath.

A comma may also be used to separate two adjectives –

After her jog, she took a hot, relaxing bath.

but it is generally omitted when the adjectives are strongly related or frequently used together –

After her jog, she took a long hot bath.

Good old Jack!

Their daughter, Edwina, is a lovely little thing.

Isolating Commas

The purpose of isolating commas is to cordon off information that is not essential to the sentence, whether a clause, a phrase or a single word –

They discussed the problem for several hours but, as usual, found no solution.

Suddenly, Jenny heard a clap of thunder.

I think, nevertheless, that you should give yourself some time.

Larks, which nest on the ground, fly higher than most other birds.

In each of these cases, we can remove what comes between the commas (or what comes before the only comma) without damaging the basic sentence –

They discussed the problem for several hours but found no solution.

Jenny heard a clap of thunder.

I think that you should give yourself some time.

Larks fly higher than most other birds.

There are circumstances, however, in which these comma omissions can cause problems

Introductory adverbs and phrases

Introductory adverbs are traditionally followed by commas –

Suddenly, Jenny heard a clap of thunder.

Outside, the temperature had dropped considerably.

Nevertheless, I think you should give yourself some time.

Fused Sentences

A fused or run-on sentence is a grammatical error in which two or more sentences are incorrectly written as one. Instead of a full stop or semicolon, the writer uses a comma or nothing at all.

Incorrect

You need take no action, however you might wish to keep this letter for your records.

Correct

You need take no action. However, you might wish to keep this letter for your records.

Proofreading for businesses - Editing for your SEO

Tue, 17 Dec 2019 09:36:11 GMT

How proofreading can improve your website's SEO ranking

As a business owner you will know how important it is to show a professional brand image. This can be marred by punctuation and spelling errors and poor grammar in your business literature. I will proofread your work to ensure it is error free. Benefits of having your work proofread include:

Correcting errors in brochures, leaflets, campaigns etc can save expensive reprints later.
Build brand reputation and brand quality.
Avoid ambiguity and misunderstandings.

For the past few years Google has implemented significant changes to its PageRank algorithm that reward excellent content on webpages with higher rankings in its search engine results pages (SERPs) at the expense of websites with poor-quality content.

In a BBC report, a business entrepreneur stated that "poor spelling is costing the UK millions of pounds in lost revenue for internet businesses" https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-14130854

Among those defining hallmarks of poor-quality content are spelling and typographical errors. This is why proofreading beforehand is vital. If the written text content is poorly developed and doesn't convey meaningful and useful information to readers, as far as Google is concerned it has little value. It will not cultivate trust in potential customers and users will not be encouraged to stay long on the page (and bounce rate is a vital factor for ranking pages in Google search). As a result, this is indicative of low-value content and will be reflected in Google search rankings.

To help optimise the value of your website, and thus to search engines, it is vital that the text is proofread and edited so that it is well written, its objectives are set out in plain English, uses correct grammar and is free of spelling errors. For instance, if there are misspellings in your important keywords, your website could fail to show up on vital keyword searches.

A Short Guide to Harvard Referencing

Mon, 25 Nov 2019 00:07:37 GMT

Writing your thesis - How to set out Harvard referencing

When proofreading academic papers, I am often asked to check in-text references and the bibliography, and to check that they follow the proper format. As you know, there are various referencing styles that academic institutions follow, such as Harvard, APA, MLA, but the most common is the Harvard style. Many times, I come across discrepancies in reference formatting, so I thought I would put together a brief illustration of how to set out Harvard referencing, both in-text and in the reference list. Please check out my student proofreading services.

How to format in-text references using Harvard style

In-text referencing should be kept brief. It is intended only to identify the source of the idea you are using, and to direct the reader to the source information, which is in the list of references at the end of your paper. The format for in-text references is as follows:

(Author surname, Year) e.g. (Jones, 2014)

Or, when you are quoting text, you should also include the page number(s):

(Author surname, Year: Page number) e.g. (Jones, 2014: 79-82)

If there are two or more authors in a work, then rather than name all the authors we say et al . I often come across confusion when writing this, so just a brief explanation. The term et al . is short for et alia , which is Latin for ‘and others’. There should ALWAYS be a full stop after et al. as this denotes the shortened term of alia . So, in an in-text reference this would be (Peters et al., 1980). I have italicised the term et al . here, but it is not necessary to do so in your own documents.

You will note that I have written these references out using a comma after the author’s surname. This is usual practice. However, the house style of some academic institutions may not require the comma, in which case the reference would be written as follows: (Jones 2014).

However, whichever style you use, the most important thing to remember is to remain consistent throughout. And remember, footnotes and references are important components of your dissertation or thesis and they should also be proofread to check for spelling, punctuation and formatting errors.

How to format a list of references

The list of references is set out in alphabetical order. When there are more than one author, the names are also listed alphabetically.

Author, A. (Year of publication) Book Title . Place of publication: Publisher

e.g. Jones, B. (2014) Philosophy in the 20th Century . Oxford: Blackwell Publishing

This, of course, is a very brief description. However, a very good point of reference is the University of Essex, which has provided an excellent guide to the Harvard style, as follows:

https://library.aru.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm