Center for Language Studies, UNIMAS

PBI 1092: Advanced Academic English

Learning Unit 1a: TYPES OF REFERENCES

By the end of this session, you should be able to:

 explain why it is important to cite authority in academic writing.
 differentiate between journals, books and edited books.
 identify volume and issue number for journals.
 differentiate between first name and family/surname.
 identify names of authors and editors on edited books.
 find relevant information for writing references for journals, books and edited
books.

This learning unit contains four sections:

A. The Importance of Citing Authority
B. Looking for Relevant References
C. Comparing Books and Journals
D. Reliability of Reference Sources

Introduction

Academic writing is quite different from other forms of writing tasks. Simply
put, academic writing is a systematic essay usually done by academics to
be read by other academics. Therefore, it must be done in a way that any
intellectual can appreciate and understand.

A. The Importance of Citing Authority

Why is it important to cite authority in academic writing?

More often than not, academic writing is viewed as a scientific effort and as in most
sciences, it requires proofs and evidences. So, you need to cite references to validate and
endorse your work. To do this, we often refer to authority which may be in the form of books,
journals and census reports. For example, we refer to the dictionary and encyclopaedia for
definitions. We turn to books when we explain the foundations of knowledge (or grounded
theory) but we look for journals when we want to know the latest discoveries or trends in
research.

You will come across many, many styles of referencing in books and journals – but there are
really two common styles:
MLA (Modern Language Association) style
APA (American Psychological Association) style

For the purpose of this course we will be looking at the APA style as this is the style
generally preferred. The current version used in this course is the APA 6th Edition
(www.apa.org).

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Center for Language Studies, UNIMAS
PBI 1092: Advanced Academic English

Two important terms which are very important are:

1. Citation – source of information, identified by author and date
2. References – list of cited sources at the end of a text, presented in alphabetical order

B. Looking for Relevant References

You might be overwhelmed with the amount of reference materials available online and offline
(e.g., at the library). When searching for relevant references, scan the title and table of contents
to decide whether you need to read further.

1. Title
The title gives us an idea of the contents and the audience.

Task 1: Predict the likely audience for each of these books (The first one has been
done for you):

Titles Likely Audience

a. Gibson Guitars 1. Trainee teachers
b. An introduction to international political 2. Botanists
theory 3. Environmental
c. A first course in Economics groups
d. Language teaching methodology: A 4. Musicians
textbook for teachers 5. Business
e. Managing the non-profit organization students
f. Flora of Borneo 6. Social science
students

Retrieved from http://stacypost.blogspot.com/2010/04/what-rhymes-with-april.html

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Center for Language Studies, UNIMAS
PBI 1092: Advanced Academic English

2. Table of Contents

The Table of Contents (TOC) lists the chapters and the content of a book, or the articles in a
journal.

Task 2: If you would like to find out more information about problems in cross-
cultural communication in the book shown in the next page, what page would you
need to turn to?

Ward, C., Bochner, S., & Furnham, A. (2001). The psychology of culture shock. East
Essex, UK: Routledge.

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Center for Language Studies, UNIMAS
PBI 1092: Advanced Academic English

3. Subject Index

The Subject Index allows you to do a quick search of topics dealt with in a book.

Task 3: If you need some ideas on how people apologise in different cultures,
what page do you turn to? What about for behaviour of teenagers?

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Center for Language Studies, UNIMAS
PBI 1092: Advanced Academic English

C. Comparing Books and Journals

1. Books

Students often refer to books because they contain the basics on a particular topic. Even if
the books deal with a difficult subject matter, they usually provide some background
information for readers. Books explain the subject matter rather comprehensively.

Books are usually one-off publication, unlike periodicals (e.g., magazines, journals).
However, sometimes authors of books wish to update some information in the book and they
produce a second edition and so on.

All the chapters in a book are written by the author(s). Even if there is more than one author,
they do not let readers know who wrote which chapter.

Task: Write the APA reference for

the book by filling in the blanks
with relevant information from
the book cover and imprint page.

____________________, ____. ( ). ______________________________________.

(surname) (initial of first name) (year of publication) (title of book - italicise)

_city________,__Country_: _____________.
(Place of publication) (Publisher)

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Center for Language Studies, UNIMAS
PBI 1092: Advanced Academic English

Task 4: Write the APA reference for the following books.

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

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Center for Language Studies, UNIMAS
PBI 1092: Advanced Academic English

2. Other important information in a book. Memorize these parts.

Parts of a book Information

Cover of a book Title, author(s), publisher
Title page Title, author(s), publisher
Imprint page The page immediately before or after the title page which contains
publishing details:

1. Publisher (e.g. Cambridge) vs printer (Biddles Sdn Bhd)

2. Place of publication (e.g. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey)

 If many towns are listed, take the name of the first town/city
mentioned.

3. Year of publication – reprints vs edition

 If reprints are made of a book, the contents are the same. Cite
the year for the original version. E.g. published in 2008,
reprinted in 2010, the original year (2008) should be used in
citation.
 If a book has several editions, cite the year of the latest edition
because the contents of the book have been changed. E.g.
Second edition 1993

4. ISBN (International Standard Book Number)

 The number is unique for that title. This is useful for librarians.

5. Copyright ©
 The copyright usually belongs to either the publisher or the
author(s).
Preface/Introduction The author’s/authors’ aims and coverage of the book

Foreword Introductory comments about the book, usually by someone other

than the author(s)
Table of contents List of contents
Dedication Example: For Lucia and Mathews
Acknowledgements Example: I am grateful to Martin Hewings, Diane Belcher and
Malcolm Coulthard who have contributed in important ways
to my understanding of plagiarism in academic writing.
Back cover The blurb (short description of book contents), background of
authors, a list of books by the same author(s), price, publisher,
barcode and ISBN
Index An alphabetical list of the topics covered and the page numbers
these topics can be found in the book
Glossary An alphabetical list of specialist terms used in the book and the
meanings of these terms
References/ An alphabetical list of the sources used by the author(s)
Bibliography
Illustration credits Sources of photographs/diagrams used in the book
Appendices Supplementary material which the author(s) want to include in the
book

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Center for Language Studies, UNIMAS
PBI 1092: Advanced Academic English

3. Journals

Journals contain articles on more specialised subject matter. One volume of a journal may
contain five to 10 articles written by different researchers. The articles are read by other
researchers who are doing similar research. Hence, journal articles are more difficult to
understand than books.

A journal is a regular publication which may be published once a year or several times a
year. Researchers send their articles to the journal and these are sent for review or
evaluation by experts in the field. The article may be rejected or accepted. The researchers
are usually asked to make some revisions before the article is finally published in the journal.

Journals can be published either in printed or electronic form. With the increasing cost of
printing, more and more journals are published electronically. To get a list of established
journals you may refer to:

 Thomson-Reuters Master Journal List for Science

http://ip-science.thomsonreuters.com/cgi-bin/jrnlst/jlresults.cgi?PC=J

 Thomson-Reuters Master Journal List for Social Science

http://ip-science.thomsonreuters.com/cgi-bin/jrnlst/jlresults.cgi?PC=K

Sample:
Shuell, T. J. (1986). Cognitive conceptions of learning. Journal of Educational Research,
56(4), 411-436.

The format is as follows:

____________________, ___________. ( ). ______________________________.

(surname) (initial of 1st&middle names) (year of publication) (title of journal article)

___________________________________, ________(_____), ___________.

(Name of journal - italicise) (volume number)(issue number) (page number)
italicise

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Center for Language Studies, UNIMAS
PBI 1092: Advanced Academic English

Task 6: Using the format shown in the last page, write the APA reference for ALL the
articles in this volume of the journal.

Agricultural Economics
Volume 31, Issues 2, Pages 119-354
(December 2004)

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Center for Language Studies, UNIMAS
PBI 1092: Advanced Academic English

4. Edited Books

Edited books are different from books in the topic coverage and the process of publication.
Edited books are like journals in that the chapters may deal with rather different topics which
are linked to a theme. The chapters in edited books are written by different author(s). These
chapters are usually solicited by the editor(s) of the book who may send them for review and
later compile them into a book.

The name of the editor(s) appears on the front cover of the book and is indicated by (Ed.) in
the APA style of referencing. However, the names of the authors appear in the Table of
Contents and the first page of the respective chapters.

Sample: Author’s name Editor’s name

Title of book chapter

Fishman, J. A. (1977). Language and ethnicity. In H. Giles (Ed.), Language ethnicity

and intergroup relations (pp. 15-58). London, UK: Academic Press.

Title of book (in italics)

Task 7: If you would like to cite Bennett’s ideas in the edited book, write the
APA reference based on the information provided
below.

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 Center for Language Studies, UNIMAS
PBI 1092: Advanced Academic English

D. Reliability of Reference Sources

Apart from books and journals, you can also obtain information from other periodicals (e.g.
magazine, newspapers, and newsletter), web sites or e-books. However, in academic
writing, books and journals are considered more reliable as references. Try to refer to them
often.

High dependency on unreliable websites such as Wikipedia and blogs should be avoided.
Many scholars are against these sources as references.

Newspapers and opinionated magazines should be used with great care. Make sure you are
clear whether ideas presented are proven facts and not just opinions, feelings and
conjectures. A good point to remember is to avoid ideas put forth by politicians.

opinion

feeling

conjectures

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Center for Language Studies, UNIMAS
PBI 1092: Advanced Academic English

Review of the Module

Quiz 1: The following are some differences between a book and a journal. Which are
“crucial differences” = C? Or Not = N?

1. Books are thicker than journals. (C/N)

2. Chapters in a book are longer than journal articles in word count. (C/N)
3. Books have Appendix, Reference, Author Index and Subject Index but journals do
not have these information. (C/N)
4. In a book, all the chapters are written by the same author(s) but the journal articles
are written by different authors. (C/N)
5. Books are identified by their titles but to find an article in a journal, we need to know
the name of the journal, title of the article, volume, issue number, and page numbers.
(C/N)
6. We can find out the age of the book by referring to the year of the publication but for
a journal, we need to find the volume number. (C/N)

Quiz 2: The following are some comparisons between a book and an edited book.
Identify which are “True” = T and “False” = F.

1. A book is not edited for format and language but edited books undergo the
proofreading process. (T/F)
2. The most important piece of information that is needed to identify a book is the title of
the book but for an edited book, it is the title of the chapter. (T/F)
3. In the APA referencing style, it is not necessary to put down the page numbers of the
chapter referred to but it is necessary to do so for an edited book. (T/F)

Quiz 3: The following are some comparisons between a journal and an edited book.
Identify which are ‘crucial differences’ = C or Not = N.

1. Edited books may not be reviewed but journal articles are reviewed. (C/N)
2. There is no word limit for chapters of edited book but journal articles have to keep
within certain word counts. (C/N)
3. The name of the editor(s) of an edited book appears on the book cover but the
editors’ names may not appear on the journal cover. (C/N)
4. In the APA referencing style, it is necessary to include the publisher and place of
publication for a chapter in an edited book but this information is not required for a
journal article. (C/N)
5. The editor(s) of an edited book usually solicits people to write the chapters for the
book but the editor(s) of journals usually receive articles submitted by researchers
and send them for review of the quality. (C/N)

Quiz 4: The following are some statements about reference sources. Identify which
are “True” = T and “False” = F.
1. As students in university, it is okay to use blogs as references. (T/F)
2. Newspapers and magazines are easy sources to get good facts. (T/F)
3. Most academics and scholars prefer evidence cited from books and journals. (T/F)

The next module is about Citation, Referencing & Citation Focus. It is a long module so you
MUST set aside more time to complete it before coming to the next class. The module is
very important for this whole course.

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