Writing an academic essay
When writing an academic essay, it is completely fine to make reference to other books, articles, websites and so on. In fact, it is very much encouraged. However, every time you quote another author, you must make reference to who the author is, and where you found the source.
For your research investigation, you will be using the Harvard style of referencing.
For example, you come across this excellent quote on page 47 in a book on vampire films (called ‘Vampire Films’), written by Michael Collins and published by Long Road Press in 2015:
“The point here is that the vampire cinema is not a genre that has remained utterly stagnant over the last 100 years, but is a genre defined by its very fluidity. While generically Twilight evidences many of the conventions of the classical vampire film, including the notion of undying creature that sustains itself on lifeblood, and the range of methods of dispatching the creature, it adds a fresh range of conventions that perhaps have more in common with contemporary teenage drama than the foetid crypts of Prince of Darkness.”
Great! It discusses exactly what you want to talk about. But it’s also quite long. Typically, you want to cut it down before incorporating it in to your essay, and there are many ways of doing this.
Let’s assume you want to state that Twilight is a very different film from Dracula: Prince of Darkness. You also want to quote this extract. Here are some ways of doing it.
Examples of using the Harvard referencing system within an essay
Example one
Twilight is a very different film from Prince of Darkness, and has “more in common with contemporary teenage drama” (Collins, 2015:47) films than classic vampire films.
In example one, the text has been quoted in such a way that it flows seamlessly with the main body of essay text. If it wasn’t for the citation (the bit where it references Collins), then we would assume it was part of the essay.
Example two
2) Collins suggests that despite sharing many “conventions of the classical vampire film” (2015:47), Twilight instead has “more in common with contemporary teenage drama” (ibid)In the second example, the essay writer has decided that Collins is important enough to mention in the main body of text. Thus the citation doesn’t need his name, just the date and the page, as we can already assume that the citation is from Collins. The word ‘ibid’ is sometimes used when exactly the same citation has been used twice in a row, to save time and ink.
Example three
3) It can be argued that Twilight is a completely different genre to earlier films like Prince of Darkness, as it is far more similar to teenage drama films (Collins, 2015:47)In the third example, the author of the essay has decided that she wants to reference the general gist of what Collins is talking about, without actually quoting him. She still must include a citation, because she took this idea from Collins.
Example four
4) For example, Collins argues
“The point here is that the vampire cinema is not a genre that has remained utterly stagnant over the last 100 years, but is a genre defined by its very fluidity. While generically Twilight evidences many of the conventions of the classical vampire film, including the notion of undying creature that sustains itself on lifeblood, and the range of methods of dispatching the creature, it adds a fresh range of conventions that perhaps have more in common with contemporary teenage drama than the foetid crypts of Prince of Darkness (2015:47)
In the fourth example, she likes the Collins quote so much she has decided to quote all of it, which is fine, though if it’s longer than two or three lines you should include it as an indented paragraph, as shown. This is incidentally a great way of eating in to your word count, but do it too often and your mark will begin to suffer…
Citations link to the bibliography
Why use all these ‘2007:304’s’ and so on? Because they link with your biography, which is situated at the end of your essay. It is a great way of saving time, as you do not need to write out the entire title and details of the book each time you reference. It’s also better for the reader, as they can instantly see who you’re referencing without having to search around for the information. This is one reason why footnotes have fallen out of fashion with most UK universities .
Why is citation important?
Without citation, you are essentially passing someone else’s work off as your own. If you reference someone, this is great and will earn you significantly more marks. If you do not reference someone, this is known as plagiarism, and it has serious, sometimes even legal consequences. It can be grounds for immediate dismissal at higher education institutions, and at the very least, it is likely that your essay will be given a ‘zero’ by external moderators. You have been warned!
P.E.A, P.E.E, P.E.E.L…
Hopefully you’ll be used to dividing your paragraphs into three or four sections, something like this:
- Point – Your point and theory you’ll be referring to
- Evidence – The primary research you use to back this up, usually close textual analysis
- Argument – Explain why this links to your research question, and use secondary research (an academic source, like (Collins 2015:47) to back up your point of view.
It's up to you what paragraph system you want to use, but use one, and stick to it.
Some more helpful pointers, including an example Harvard Bibliography, can be found here.