Learning Skills Letter: Citation and Referencing What if . . .

To: MIB students

From: John Small, Learning Skills Adviser
Date: Friday, 12 August 2016

I had an interesting response to my last letter. A student asked me (I am very grateful for such a response,
because it means that my work is reaching out to you and being received): Sometimes resources online do not
have authors or editing dates (for instance when you get information from a proper company website).

This observation is correct, and it got me thinking. There are many kinds of resources that should be acknow-
ledged. Many situations arise that may seem difficult to handle. What I mean is: What if you found a video pre-
sentation by a scholar in your field, and you wanted to refer to what this person says in the video? How would
you cite and reference that? Or, what if you found facts and figures on the website of an organisation, and it
was critical to the success of your assignment that you quote those pieces of information? The website may not
mention any particular person(s) as the author(s). How would you cite and reference such a source?

Please understand this: All these situations have been considered by the APA (American Psychological
Association) in providing a suitable referencing style. I would like to offer you the following guidance, so that
you never need to wonder what to do when writing an essay, report or dissertation:
Step 1: Go online
Step 2: Go to msa.ac.za
Step 3: Click Library
Step 4: Right at the bottom of the page, click Learning Skills
Step 5: Click Research and Learning Online
Step 6: Click Research and Writing for Assignments
Step 7: Under Academic Integrity and Referencing click Style Guides
Step 8: Click APA.
Step 9: There is a .pdf file at the URL http://guides.lib.monash.edu/ld.php?content_id=12586146. Click on it.

Examine closely how this document is arranged. There are tables that tell you what to do if the source has:
one author; six or more authors;
two authors; different authors having the same
three to five authors; surname;
What if:
there is the possibility that a citation my be ambiguous;
there are multiple works by the same author
there are multiple works by the same author in the same year
an author is given as anonymous
an author is given as unknown
the author is a corporation or a group of people
a citation must mention multiple studies
only specific parts of a source have been used, and these need to cited specifically
the source was accessed electronically

1
 the source is a secondary source (that is, a source referred to in other work)
the source is a scholarly journal
a Digital Object Identification (DOI) or URL needs to be named
a book or book chapter must be cited
government or other reports must be cited
dictionaries and encyclopaedias have been referred to
audio visual media from the internet
university course materials

I hope and trust that this will help you to clarify for yourselves situations that need careful handling, and a clear
knowledge of the APA referencing system.