Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential guide for students, teachers, researchers and librarians, 29 Mar 2009
An outstandingly comprehensive and useful guide which I would recommend to everyone doing original research for writing an essay, dissertation, research paper or book, including all students at secondary and higher education levels, their teachers and/or supervisors, authors, librarians and other non-academic researchers.
Despite the level of very necessary detail covered, this guide is very easy to use, in part thanks to clear sub-sections and contrasting typography, the inclusion of many practical examples of references, a helpful glossary and a comprehensive index which, hitherto, I have always found to be effective.
Coverage of the necessary material divides is split into five logically separate sections.
Section A introduces referencing, what it is and why it needs to be done. There are helpful comments on how to avoid plagiarism, the significance of both common knowledge and confidential information for the referencing process and the question of which referencing style to use.
Section B summarises the most important methods of displaying citations and quotations within a body of text. Section C does the same for displaying references in a reference list and/or bibliography. Both sections use copious examples to demonstrate theoretical points raised. The most common sources are dealt with, namely books, individual book chapters, journal articles (printed and electronic), newspaper articles and internet web sites.
Section D includes individual sections on every conceivable source type that might be encountered and how referencing is done for each source type, again with practical examples. For this section, the Harvard (author-date) style is followed. To name but some source types included, conference papers, theses, Virtual Learning Environment content pages, British Standards, patents, mathematical equations, cartoons, maps, radio and TV programmes, musical scores, podcasts, genealogical sources and, increasingly, internet and online source material are all included. I hope this list in part demonstrates the thoroughness of this book's coverage in detail. The increasing need for reference to electronic sources necessitates purchase of this latest edition rather than the earlier two editions.
Section E covers the essentials of alternative styles to the Harvard referencing style, namely the Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA), the American Psychological Association (APA), the Modern Language Association (MLA) and the Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA).
My one criticism is that there is little emphasis given as to when referencing should be carried out during the research and writing process, apart from some very brief indications on page 12 under 'How to avoid plagiarism'. Referencing needs to be done for each source at the time of use rather than as a comprehensive exercise done after all research has been completed, as I have found out from encounters with college students completing their written assignments and being unable to re-locate materials previously used so that they can recheck referencing details. This criticism does not detract significantly from my overall assessment.
Lastly, this book retails at a very reasonable price. Definitely, excellent value for money!
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5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Referabcing Guide, 29 Jan 2009
Great book that has seen me through University, have not had as much experience with this new edition but what I have has all been good.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It does cite them right, 8 Jun 2009
I had come across this product in the university library and was very impressed by it. But they all disappeared when deadlines came around. So I decided to buy one.
The referencing system used is Harvard, and this book goes through all the possible sources of research. This is from basic books to podcasts, and audio-visual material. For me personally as a law student, it shows the correct way of referencing cases, Acts of Parliament and other Government documents.
The book is very user friendly, and clearly shows how a piece of information should be set out in both the essay and bibliograpthy/reference list. It can be used for by all students, either undergrad or postgrad. I have recoomendended it to a friend who is starting a PHD, and when they looked at my copy they were impressed by the clarity and detail.
If you have any problems with referencing, I would recommend this book, plus it does not cost much, as other standard txt books.
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