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Research Toolkit: Footnote Referencing System

Why reference

Footnotes are used to support and give credibility to your arguments, to acknowledge their original source and to substantiate your facts and ideas in your work. It enables you to act in an honest and ethical manner.

How to create your footnote references

To create your references for your footnotes, use the Online Referencing Generator to generate them for both the footnote at the bottom of the page in your essay, the Reference list (the references you cited in your essay) and your Bibliography (all the other information sources you used). 

An example of Footnotes in a essay

Creating footnotes using Microsoft Word

How to create your references using the Online Referencing Generator

  • A bibliography is a list of information sources known as references which you have used in your research.
  • The Online Referencing Generator (ORG) is a web tool that automatically creates your references for your bibliography in a style known as the Harvard Author-Date System.
  • The following five steps show you how to use the ORG and step six shows you what your bibliography should look like.
  • Click on ORG once you have looked at the five steps.
  • The link to the ORG is always available from the library webpage in the Quick Links box along with other web based research tools or in the libguides that you are using for your research.
  • Once you click on the link you need to type in the password in the upper right hand corner and click enter. The password is available from the library staff.
  • Click on the Let's begin tab on the Middle School Bibliography option as shown below.

 

  • From the nine major types of information sources, look for the type of information source you are using and click on the correct link for that source.

 

 

  • For example : If you have a printed book with one author click on the first choice from the Book - printed source OR if you have a website without a author click on the fifth choice from the Website source.

 

  • Once you have clicked on your information source the screen below comes up with fields based on your choice of information source.
  • In this example you would fill in the following fields with the information from a printed book with an author.
  • You will always need to use capital letters as this is the only formatting the ORG does not automatically do.
  • If you choose a website as your information source you will need to fill in a field called Source. Look at your website and locate the publisher of the page as your source.
  • Click on Create citation once all the fields are filled in.

  • The citation will appear similar to the example below.
  • Highlight, copy and paste your reference into your own file either on your USB or on your student drive on the public share.
  • Notice the ORG formats and punctuates your reference automatically.
  • The Note: information always appears when you create your citation to remind you to arrange your references into alphabetical order by the first word when you are completing your bibliography.

  • Your bibliography is usually handed up as a separate page or slide (in a powerpoint) and attached to your assignment.
  • Click here to go to the ORG.
  • This is an example of a completed bibliography. Notice the heading and the references are in alphabetical order by the first word :

Bibliography

Eastwood, K 2004, Women and girls in the Middle Ages, Crabtree, New York.

Medieval Lords 2014, Medieval Life and Times, accessed 3 May 2015, <http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-life/medieval-lords.htm>.

 

What is in text referencing?

  • Within the text of your assignment you must acknowledge the author/authoring body or the title of the information source, the date it was published and the page numbers (if known) you are using.

Why do you need to reference?

  • Referencing is used to acknowledge that an idea, image (or the exact words) used within a piece of writing (or non-written text) is that of another person.
  • Referencing shows respect for other people’s intellectual rights and avoids plagiarism.
  • In-text referencing is used to support the information you use in your assignments.

What are the two types of in-text references?

  • You can either use the author's direct words (direct quote) written within quotation marks OR a summary of their ideas (indirect quote).

What is included in a in-text reference?

  • For either a quote or a indirect quote you use the author's surname or authoring body or title of the information source, date and page number (from where you have obtained the quote or the idea if you can) in round brackets. For example (Smith 2016) or (Smith 2016, pg. 5). Notice there isn't a comma between the name and the date and if there is a page number, follow the date by a comma pg. number and close the round bracket followed by a full stop.

What is a reference list?

  • A reference list includes the quotes and indirect quotes you have used in your assignment and is created on a separate sheet and attached to your assignment.
  • Use the Online Referencing Generator to generate your references which are put into alphabetical order under the title Reference List.

Use the word document below In text reference table to organise and keep track of your in text references.

The included PDF What technological devices are used to detect volcanoes has several in-text reference examples and a Reference List to help you use and understand in-text referencing.

  • Intext references highlighted in yellow are indirect quotes (summary of the author's idea)
  • The intext reference highlighted in blue is a direct quote (the ... (three dots) are used if you do not want to include the entire sentence)
  • The intext reference highlighted in grey is a reference to a figure (diagram) (start from figure 1 and continue numerically)

 

What is a Footnote?

Footnotes include a note (or reference to a source of information) which appears at the foot (bottom) of the page.

The footnoting system requires you to include:

  • a footnote in the the text
  • a list of references attached to the assignment.

In your essay you indicate a reference by:

  • putting a small number above the line of type directly following the source material. Microsoft word has a tool which will help you to do this automatically. Instructions on how to do this are included on this guide.
  • putting the same number, followed by a reference of you source at the bottom of the page.

Footnoting should be numerical: the first reference is 1, the second is 2 and so on.

There are two ways to acknowledge an information source in your essay:

Direct quotes: written within double quotation marks. Direct quotes must be the exact words of the author/article and their use must be kept to a minimum.

Paraphrasing: summarising an author’s ideas without using their exact words. Concentrate on the author's ideas and not the wording. 

Paraphrasing is more commonly used then direct quotes. The former demonstrates your understanding of what you have read.

Abbreviations for subsequent Footnotes

A way to shorten second or subsequent references you have already used in your footnote references is to use either ibid (same as last entry) or op. cit. (as previously cited).

  • Use ibid when two references in a row are from the same source.
  • Use op. cit. when you have already given full details of that source in an earlier note.

Examples

1. Cordell, D 2011, The Story of Phosphorus, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, p. 56

2. ibid., p. 63

3. The Costs and Benefits of Industrial Agriculture,  Alberni Environmental Coalition, n.d., accessed 3 May 2014, http://portaec.net/library/food/costs_and_benefits_of_industrial.html.

4. Cordell, op. cit., p. 67.

Using Endnote in Word

In using the Footnote style of referencing you create your references at the end of each page of your document. If you would rather have your references appear on a separate page at the end of your assignment use Endnote in word instead. 

Instead of inserting a Footnote, insert Endnote which will, at the end of your assignment, move your references to your last page.