How to compile a reference list

As noted earlier, a reference list provides the full bibliographic details of the information sources you referenced in your essay.

For a book, the bibliographic details can be found on the imprint page before the contents page. For example, if you look at the imprint page of a book, you'll find all the bibliographic details you need to compile a reference list entry. For a journal article, the bibliographic details—such as journal title, year, volume and issue number—can be found on the front cover of the journal. If you photocopy a journal article, remember to make a record of the bibliographic details.

Editions, impressions and reprints: What's the difference?

If there is more than one edition of a book, always include the edition number in your reference list. There is no need to record that a book is a first edition. Different editions of a book mean that some of the content and layout has changed. For example, the second edition of a book may be both revised and with new content that has altered the page numbering, so that it no longer corresponds to the earlier edition. For this reason, it is important to record the edition of the book you used in your reference list. Please note that impressions and reprints are not new editions; they signify the reprinting of a book if the previous print run has sold out, and there is no need to note this fact in your list of references.

How to reference in the Harvard/APA style

There are two basic ways to write a Harvard/APA style of reference in the text of your essay. One method is to cite the author as a part of the actual sentence (with only the year and page numbers in brackets), as shown below:

• Apple (2000:101) argues…

The bracketed information indicates the year of publication and page number from where the information was drawn. Note that there is always a space between the author name and the bracket and don't include the initials of authors' names. Another way to reference is to include the author, date and page number all in brackets. For example:

•         There is evidence to suggest … (Apple 2000:101).

Note that the full-stop is after the bracket. Most essay writers alternate between both methods for variety; which one to use depending on the structure of the sentence.