When writing an essay it is necessary to acknowledge fully all sources of information, data, opinions, comments, direct and indirect quotations, maps, tables and diagrams that are not your own. This is done to give credit to the work of authors and to provide information about the sources so that any reader could trace the sources and find the same information.

The accepted system in use at this school is the author-date system. There are two parts to the author-date system of referencing

• a brief reference to the author's surname, date of publication and page number if appropriate, is embedded in the text ie if you directly quote a passage, copy tables or figures or paraphrase or summarise an idea from a particular page.
• full bibliographic details of the essay in the reference list at the end of the work.

Examples of references within a work

• Smith (1995, p. 165) has argued that 'the rate of production is not dependent on worker satisfaction'.
• Brand (1963) provides data on ...
• A number of researchers have examined this particular problem (for example, Lodge 1982, Richard & Richards 1983, Lyons 1984) ...
• Longman (1989, pp. 215-221) was the first researcher to note this difference.
• Lonsdale (1983) and Hammond (1979) demonstrated that ...

The reference list is arranged alphabetically and placed at the end of the assignment. It contains details only of the works which have been cited in the text. The following are examples of entries in a list of references.

Books

Author's name and initials

(Year of Publication)

Name of Book in bold or underlined

Publisher

Chapman, J. & Rayner, M. (1990) Creating business systems. Prentice-Hall.

Encyclopaedia Articles

Title of the article in ' ' or italics

(Year of Publication)

Title of CD ROM in bold or underlined

Publisher

'Athletics', (1998) The World Book Encyclopedia, Vol. A, World Book Inc.

CD ROM

Title of the article in ' ' or italics

(Year of Publication)

Title of CD ROM in bold or underlined

[CD ROM] in square brackets

Publisher

'Solar System', (1999) Encarta '95', [CD ROM], Microsoft.

Magazine (Journal) Article

Author's name and initials

(Year of Publication)

Title of the article in ' ' or italics

Title of magazine in bold or underlined

Date & Page #

Kahn, H. & Singer M. (1986), 'Co-operative learning in the middle school', Middle School Journal 6,2, Nov., pp. 22-27.

Newspapers

Author's name and initials

(Year of Publication)

Title of article in ' ' or italics

Title of magazine in bold or underlined

Date & Page #

'Euthanasia vote in parliament', (1999) The West Australian, June 16, p. 17.

Video/TV Program

Title of video in bold or underlined

(Year of Publication)

State whether video or television program [in square brackets]

Publisher

Out of Luck (1997) [videorecording], Commonwealth Department of Health.

Brochure

Author or Producer, eg Education Queensland

(Year of Publication)

Title of Brochure

Place of Publication, eg Brisbane, Qld.

Queensland Health (1999) Quit : give smoking away, Brisbane.

Interview

Interviewee's name and initials

(Year)

State [Interview with ...] in square brackets

Place of Interview eg Education Queensland. Qld.

Johnston, M., (1994)  [Interview with R. Luck] Kedron, Qld.

Computer Program

Author's name and initials

(Year)

Title of program in bold or underlined

State [computer program] in square brackets

Publisher

Word for Windows 2.0, (1991) [computer program], Microsoft Corporation.

On-line Data Bases

Author's name and initials

(Year)

Title of the database in bold or underlined

State [on-line] in square brackets

Availability: eg www address

Towns, J. (1999) Australian Associated Press Database [on-line] Available: Nexus

World Wide Web

Atuhor's name and initials

(Year)

Title of work in bold or underlined

State [on-line] in square brackets

Publisher

Ferris, A.M. (2002) Tales from the Tenure Track : A Cataloguer's Ultimate Experience [On-line], Available www: http://www.newbreedlibrarian.org

Email messages

Author's name and initials

(Year)

Subject of message in bold or underlined

Stae [on-line] in square brackets

Publisher

Education Queensland, (2000) DOEM update [on-line]. Available email : [email protected]

Reference List

Commonwealth of Australia (1994) Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers, 5th edn, Australian Government Publishing Service.

What Matters in Reading & Viewing (Aust) Stepping Out Workshop, Edith Cowan University.