Hi everyone, and welcome to this short video.
Today we are going to talk about how to cite in-text when using quotations
using Harvard referencing style. Now when we talk about direct quotations,
what this means is we’re using the exact words of the author.
In academic writing, we can use either short quotations
(i.e., quotations that are less than 30 words) or we can use long
quotations (i.e., quotations that are more than 30 words) : but there are rules for using both.
So these are the rules for using short quotations:
Short quotes should be incorporated into a sentence.
And, because we’re copying the exact words of the author,
we need to put single quotation marks around the quote
Finally, we need to include the source of the quote (this is our citation).
So let’s have a closer look at the citation in Harvard style.
The citation should include three pieces of important information:
The
author’s name The year,
The page number
So let’s take a look at how a short quote might look if we use an author-focused format.
The author-focused citation places an emphasis on the author by integrating the
author name into the sentence, which is followed immediately by the year
and the page number in brackets. This type of citation is also called a narrative citation
and is usually placed at the beginning or in the middle of the sentence.
Notice the text at the top of the page. This is the quote that we’re going to
use in our hypothetical assignment. Now, because we’re quoting, we’re going to use
these exact words, i.e., Students often find higher learning to be an exciting challenge.
And this was written by Jones in 2020.
So, in the first example, we can see the author name is at the beginning of the sentence, which
is followed immediately by the year, a comma, and then the page number inside the brackets).
Then we have the reporting verb, “suggested that” and then the full quote in single quotation marks.
The second example is similar, but in this case,
we start the sentence with our reporting verb, ‘According to’, and then the author name, Jones,
and then in brackets immediately after the author’s name we have the year,
comma, and the page number. A comma is placed immediately after the citation, and we have the
full quote inside single quotation marks.
The third example uses a fragment or portion of the original quote. It has the author further
back in the sentence. So, “Many students find academic study ‘an exciting challenge’
as Jones (2020, p. 7) suggested in a recent study.” Notice that in this example, the
author name, followed by the date and page number in brackets, comes after the quote in the final
part of the sentence.
The last example demonstrates that we don’t need to use every word of a quote,
we can simply use a fragment to highlight the part that we want to use.
But we must always include the page number when using a direct quote.
Now let’s take a look at how a short quote might look in our assignment if we use an
information-focused format. This kind of citation is usually placed at the end of a sentence.
If we break this sentence down, we can see that the citation comes after the quotation:
it begins with the author’s name followed by the date, then a comma before the page number.
Notice that there is no comma between the author name and the date, there is only
a space. And note also, that the “p” denoting the page number is punctuated with a full stop.
This information is contained within round brackets, and a full stop is placed after
the citation.
So now we know how to reference a short quotation using both author-focused and information-focused
formats. But if we want to use a long quotation, a different format is used. By ‘long quotation’,
we mean quotes with more than 30 words. Long quotes are far too long to include within
the body of a text, and so they’re usually indented in a block format.
Here are the guidelines for using long quotations. They should be:
Indented from the text margin in a block format
The font should be one size smaller, so if, for example you are using Times New
Roman 12 pt in the body of your essay, you should use 11 pt for your long quotation.
The line spacing is single-spaced And quotation marks are not needed
Here’s an example of a long quote with an author-focused citation.
Remember, this format has the author names integrated into the sentence,
and outside the brackets. So, here, the sentence starts with the reporting verb,
“According to”, then the author names - followed by the date and page number in brackets.
Because this format integrates the author names into the sentence,
the full word “and” is used, not the symbol.
Here we can see the quotation is indented from the text, and is in a smaller font.
Notice too that the quote is introduced with a colon,
which is placed at the end of the preceding sentence.
And here’s the same long quote with an information-focused format. Again, you can see
that the author names, year and page number appear at the end of the quotation all within brackets.
And when this type of citation includes more than one author,
notice that the symbol is used, not the word “and”, unlike in our previous example.
Notice also that there is no comma between the author name and the date,
just a space. And importantly, when we cite a long quote in this format, the full
stop is placed after the quotation, but note that there is no full stop after the citation itself.
And here are some important tips about using quotes in academic writing:
Too many direct quotes is not good,
so use direct quotations sparingly! The majority of your assignment should
be in your own “voice”. Try not to rely too heavily on the words of others because it
can mean that you’re not demonstrating your own understanding of those ideas.
So we hope
this has been helpful. Good luck with all of your referencing and we’ll see you next time!