Harvard Style of Referencing

One of the basic responsibilities of a student is to write assignments. And while writing these assignments or dissertations students have to take many things into account. One of those things is, acknowledging the author whose quotations or ideas you have taken. The most accepted way of acknowledging the source of your inspiration is by using a referencing system.

Why do we need to use a referencing system in the first place? Well, the answer is pretty simple. When one doesn’t acknowledge the work and simply use an author’s words or work, he indirectly claims, it is his/her own work. This is plagiarism in academic words, but in plain words called piracy. But, citing a reference of an author will definitely give the impression that you thoroughly have read about the topic and have put in your efforts for the development of the assignment. So, whom do you want to be a “plagiarist”/”pirate” or a person who sincerely had done his best for the assignment. There is a chance that your work gets a zero and in some serious cases your in University might be cancelled, if found that you’ve resorted to plagiarism.

Harvard Style

The Harvard Referencing Style, just like the APA Referencing Style, gives the rules and regulations on how the referencing and citations should be presented in your work. They are:

For books, record
· The author’s or editor’s name or both
· The year of the publication
· The title of the work or book
· The edition is it is other than the first
· The city the book was published in, and
· The name of the publisher
Ex: Adair, J. (1988) Effective time management: How to save time and spend it wisely, London: Pan Books.

For journal articles, record
· The author’s name or names
· The year in which the journal was published
· The title of the article
· The title of the journal
· The page number/s of the article in the journal
Ex: Cumming, F. (1999) ‘Tax-free savings push’, Sunday Mail, 4 April, p. 1.

For electronic resources, record
· The date you accessed the source
· The electronic address or email
· The type of electronic resource (WWW page COM)

Harvard Referencing Style

If the data is from a CD-ROM, electronic database, or journal in a website,
Ex: Skargren, E.I. & Oberg, B (1998) ‘Predictive factors for 1-year outcome of low-back and neck pain in patients treated in primary care: Comparison between the treatment strategies chiropractic and physiotherapy’, Pain [Electronic], vol. 77, no.2, pp.201-208, Available: Elsevier/Science Direct/O304-3959(98)00101-8, [8, Feb 1999].

Its extremely important that students correctly reference all paraphrasing and direct quotations. While there are many rules and regulations under the Harvard system, the broad rules are, cite the author’s name, title of his/her work, date of publication and page numbers of the original source. This might seem a little old fashioned but, you’ll be gaining good skills along the way.

References:
http://www.imperial.ac.uk/library/pdf/harvard_referencing.pdf
http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm
http://www.usq.edu.au/library/help/referencing/harvard.htm#Books_print_and_online
http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/tutorials/citing/harvard.html
http://www.imperial.ac.uk/library/pdf/harvard_referencing.pdf

About the Company:
HelpWithAssignment.com is an online tutoring company. Our network spans 3 continents and several countries. We offer three kinds of services: Assignment Help, Thesis Help and Online Tuitions for students in their college or University.
support@helpwithassignment.com