References and Bibliography

All original statements, problem definitions, quotations, figures, drawings, tables, etc., by other authors, used in the main body of the paper must be cited. The presentation of well-known positions does not need to be cited. Positions and data belonging to other authors must be presented in the work as an exact citation or reference.

Concepts and terminology related to citations

A citation indicates where information comes from, such as the book’s author, title, and year of publication. Referencing is essential to show the sources’ credibility and respect the original author’s work. All written work that uses text or visual material created by another author (e.g. research papers, research articles, reports, essays, Personal Projects, etc.) must be cited. When writing a reference, it should be noted that if the reference is at the end of a sentence, it refers to that sentence; if it is at the end of a paragraph, it refers to the whole paragraph.

A quotation is an exact, word-for-word copy of a sentence from someone else’s text used in your work to support an argument or show where an idea comes from. The text of the quotation must be precisely the same as the source and must always be accompanied by a reference to show where the quotation is taken from. The quotation should be placed in quotation marks. The citation should include the author’s name and the year of publication, as well as the page of the book from which the quotation is taken, for example: ‘Education is the most powerful weapon that can be used to change the world’ (Mandela, 2003, p. 45). Quoting makes sense when it is not possible or reasonable to paraphrase what the author has said. Quotations are usually short and consist of only 1-2 sentences. Quotations do not include a whole paragraph from the original text.

A reference is a summary of someone else’s text in your own words to present the main ideas of the original text more shortly and straightforwardly. References must also refer to the source text. The referencing is similar to a citation, but you do not always need to include a page number if referring to a general idea. For example, Mandela believed education was a powerful tool for changing the world (Mandela, 2003).

Paraphrasing is expressing someone else’s thoughts in your own words, retaining the original meaning but using different words and sentence structure. The information is presented in your own words but in the same order as in the original text. Using paraphrasing shows that you understand the original material and can select information. When paraphrasing someone else’s thoughts or ideas, it is also academically honest to refer to the author of the original idea.

To paraphrase correctly, read the text and make sure you understand the point of the text. Then, paraphrase what you have read (without looking at the text) in your own words, focusing on the point of the text. Compare the original text with what you have written – if they are too similar, change the wording of the sentence (sentence structure, synonyms, etc.). Remember that omitting or changing just a few words does not make the quote a paraphrase. Translating a foreign text word-for-word does not turn a quotation into a paraphrase, and in such cases, it is wise to summarise the foreign text in your own words. (Sootak & Siimets-Gross, 2020)

Generally accepted knowledge is fact or information that is widely known and accepted and does not need to be explicitly referred to in the research. These are things that most people know and do not need to be proven. For example, the Earth orbits the Sun. However, if specific information is used that is not generally accepted, or that comes from a particular study, book or article, then it must be referred to.

References must use a uniform referencing system throughout the work. When choosing a referencing system, it should be noted that in-text referencing is mainly used for works in the natural sciences (biology, chemistry, physics, etc.) and the social sciences (psychology, sociology, education). The footnote style is used in the humanities (history, philosophy, etc.) and law. The literature citation must be consistent with the referencing system applied. The APA referencing system (apastyle.apa.org) is used for in-text citation to format written work at Miina Härma Gümnaasium. It is recommended that the MS Word word-processing program (References menu) be used to reference and list the sources used.

The advantage of automatic referencing is MS Word’s capacity to store all the sources used in the work and generate a correctly formatted list of references used automatically. All you have to do is enter the source data correctly, and the system will format it. To create an automatic in-text and footnote reference, open the REFERENCES menu. From the same menu, you can also create a bibliography list.

REMEMBER!

• For in-text referencing, use generally accepted referencing systems (e.g. APA).
• In humanities papers, it may be necessary to use footnotes, which allow you to include explanations.
• The footnote style is also used when referring throughout the work to web pages whose addresses you wish to reference on the same page.
• Your thesis supervisor will advise you on which citation style to use.
• To automatically generate a list of references, you must enter all the sources you have used.

Creating automatic references (APA)

• Place the cursor where the in-text reference should appear.
• Open the References menu and click Insert Citation.
• Select Add New Source, select the appropriate source type and enter as much information as possible about your source:
  • AUTHOR – author, title, year of publication, publisher.
  • WEBSITE – author, generic name of the web site, name of the web page of the specific menu, date accessed (year/month/date accessed), copied link, etc.
  • OTHER SOURCES – enter as much information as possible
• Click OK and a correct reference will appear in your text.

Using a previously entered reference

• Place the cursor where the in-text reference should appear.
• Open the References menu and click the triangle next to the button Insert Citation.
• A list of previously inserted sources will appear,
• Click on the appropriate source and its reference will appear in the text.

Creating a footnote reference

• Place the cursor where the footnote should appear (at the end of the word).
• Open the References menu and click Insert Footnote.
• A number will appear after the word inside the text, and a place will be placed to insert the reference (web address, etc.) at the footer of the page.
• NOTE: You must type in or copy the footnote text at the footer of the page.

Creating a bibliography list

Once you have entered all the sources you have used, you can start with the list of bibliographies or references used.

• Place the cursor at the beginning of the page where you want to add the list of sources used.
• Open the References menu and click the Bibliography button next to the Insert citation button.
• Choose the style you like and click on it (the first one is perfectly fine).
• A bibliography list will appear appropriately (full stops-colons, italics in the right places, alphabetical order etc).
• Change the font style and size of the text to the appropriate size and format the title.

NB! The list of sources can also be updated in the same way as the table of contents. Click the Update Citations and Bibliography button in the top left-hand corner, and the table will update. You may need to do this if you have added sources after first creating the bibliography list.