Referencing – Rules, Queries, Harvard etc.

@smoke and @mrfaizankhan These are some ACTUAL comments I read on a student’s feedback sheet written by their OBU marker “You need to ensure that your work is properly referenced. All charts and tables should be referenced and all statements of fact, or opinions of others should be referenced.” I therefore do not think a single statement is necessarily acceptable…..

I recommend that every graph is referenced (in line with the marker’s comments above) This can be done in one of two ways either by including (XYZ plc, 2013) or the like under the graph or table or Source: Appendix X1 and then showing in Appendix X1 that the figures used were derived from the annual report(s).

When you apply the theory of SWOT and PESTLE to your organisation you need to supply references to support your statements. When you list out the strengths for example you may be referring to something the CEO has said in his statement in the annual report or an article in the business press. This provides the evidence that the statements that you are making are true and gives them validity. You need to ensure that most of your SWOT / PESTLE is referenced like this. You may possibly get away with the odd statement that is unreferenced but certainly not the whole section….

I hear what you are saying but that’s not how it works with research and analysis – good analysis is backed up with researched references. If you are actually working for the organisation then you could cite yourself as the source (reference in the usual way and put your name in the Reference list and against the source write ‘personal knowledge gained while working for XYZ plc’ and give it a date) but do not be tempted to invent a fictitious source or pretend that you work there – the markers are not that stupid as to be taken in. Unless your RAP shows such in depth knowledge throughout that only someone within or with close connections with the organisation would know the facts, you will only dig a bigger hole for yourself

I did find myself in exactly the same position as you when doing a dissertation for my Masters: my tutor told me to reference a couple of statements that I had made myself – so I went and did a search online with a few of the key words or ideas and found someone had made similar comments and I used them (seemed to keep the tutor happy and be within the rules and in reality confirmed that I had been right all along, so everyone was happy!) 😀

I submitted my RAP today and i have a few questions. Please someone answer. Also I am new in open tuition so I don’t know exactly where to post what.
Please someone do answer my questions.

1. I gave one list of references titled “LIST OF REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY” and there I did not give separate lists for “references” and “Bibliography”. Instead under one list I put everything. Is that a Problem?

2. To reference annual reports I gave page numbers. I referenced it within the RAP like this = (SPL’s Annual Report 2012, p.61) Please check the commas and the way I wrote it. Is it correct.Which one is correct from the following:
a) (SPL’s Annual Report 2012, p.61)
b) (SPL’s Annual Report, 2012, p.61.)

I used option ‘a’ . If it is not the correct way would they fail me? However, I gave all references, that is from which ever place I copy pasted, I gave proper references. I am just not sure whether the method of giving references was accurate.

PLEASE HELP

thank you so much for such a boost up. I have heard so much about this website and now that I am actually here, I know why they say that open tuition is the best. You all are just so helpful..!! I will just get back to my studies for my coming exams now..! Thank you..!!

is it correct to collect all the figures(Gross Profit,trade receivables,cos…) from the financial statements that i will use for my calculations in a table in excel and to put a reference under this table e.g Annual Reports 2010,2011,2012

and then create separate tables in excel who contain the results of my calculations from these figures and put a reference under each table e.g Appendix
Thus,I will explain the various formulas in my RAP together with the table and graph pictures extracted from excel.

Is my approach correct?

Also, the company I am using has subsidiaries. Should I use the consolidated FS or focus my report only to the Parent’s FS?

below of each graph and table you need to mention this….

(Source: 1,2,3,4 Annual Reports of PSO and APL for the FY 2009-FY2011)

In list of Reference:

1. PSO (2010) Annual Report [Online]. Pakistan: Pakistan State Oil. Available at: https://www.psopk.com/investors/pdf/financial_analysis_2010.pdf [Accessed 06 March 2012]. {Page 70-71}

1,2 , 3 and 4 are the sr. numbers while page number at the end of each reference is page number of BS and P&L from which you actually derived these ratios…

Another thing i would like to ask is, i found some PDF files on government based websites, What would they be categorized as? And what should their title be?

Thank you trephena, however i have seen such examples in Information pack but i just can’t seem to determine on how some source of information should be categorized because apparently each category has a little difference in writing it in reference list.

So i may not have been able to explain some of my questions (4 and 5) properly provided English is not my native tongue. I now understand after your post on how i will lay out reference list and different between citation and list.

However can you answer some other questions too about categorizing different sources of information so that i can properly write them in reference list. Mainly question 4 and 5 is left to be answered 😛

Thank you trephena, Just one more thing.

On information pack it’s written like this

BBC (2012). Leveson Inquiry: Coulson held News Corp shares while PM’s aide. BBC News, Date of Article. [Online], Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18002228 (Accessed: Date when accessed).

Comparing it to yours

BBC (2012). Leveson Inquiry: Coulson held News Corp shares while PM’s aide, BBC News website retrieved 12 May 2012 from https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18002228

There are multiple differences, very minor though.
My actual question here is, do these minor differences create issues? Or do we have to be precise like i copied from Info pack?

Second and last question i have is that when i use a particular source such as BBC News, provided there are 2 articles in same year without any author name given. Do i have to write organisation name then? in citation (BBC News, 2013) [ do i have to write like this twice in different areas? ]

Thank you so much, it’s pretty clear to me now 🙂

@captmario – the same ref can be used more than once in the text if you have used a document a few times. (Purists would put in the page no. but this is not necessary at RAP level and I would only do it myself if the document was very long – if using the annual report you could do this but don’t worry – it is not expected). The same ref would appear just once in the Reference List as it is one and the same source.

I have another question ^^
Assuming that i am writing about a particular product, cement, during a particular financial year sale prices were raised several times and as a result overall sales revenue increased despite fall in sales volume.

Now i found 2 separate news articles 6 months apart, because it’s not possible to find and reference every single price raise. so to give general idea that prices were raised several times during the year i picked 2 such articles.

Now my question is that in my analysis i wrote ‘Sales revenue increase despite fall in sales volume because prices were hiked several times during the year (Citation1, 2011) (Citation2, 2011)’ Can i put 2 citations together like this? Or do i have to write exactly by how much they were raised separately ? Like ‘Sales revenue increased because price of cement bag rose by $1 (Citation1, 2011) and rose further by $2 to total of $20 (Citation2, 2011).

Is first one fine or do i have to follow second method?