Brief Guidelines for Harvard Referencing Style Format

Nowadays, there are different styles of referencing used by the students in order to cite different sources used in numerous assignments. It is very important to include the references in the writings for the convenience of the reader. The reader will feel ease at discovering the sources from where the information has been taken.

What is referencing?

Referencing is a system where rules and standards are used to format citations and references. Some scholars also find referencing and citation as a pressuring and terrifying task but as they get to know what are the rules to be used for referencing,

About different referencing styles?

There are certain ways how students can cite the references in the writings. Different referencing styles are as under –

a. APA format (American Psychological Association) – This is generally used by the students for writing projects on psychology  

b. MLA style is used by humanity students

c. Chicago/ Turabian style – it is mostly used in business projects, history

d. IEEE and Harvard style of referencing

What is Harvard style of referencing?

The Harvard referencing style is a very popular style of referencing which use the author-date system for in-text citations.

In-text citations – It constitutes mainly author’s name and the publishing year.

Here is a basic guide to cite the references in the Harvard Referencing style –

1. Harvard style of referencing – reference list

A reference list is generally a complete list of sources used in creating any writing work. This list can include the information about the sources like the author, date of publication, title of the antecedent. A Harvard referencing style list should be like this –

a. Always use the suppurate sheet at the end of the work.

b. The data should be structured alphabetically.

c. There should be a double space between each line of the text.

2. Harvard style of referencing –In-text basics:  In-text references are those which are written in the main body or refer to a paraphrase. The in-text citations in the Harvard referencing style should specify the author’s surname, the year of publication, page numbers.

For example – Marshall (2019, t 199)

3. For two or three authors – When the students have to cite information on two or three authors, they can write the surnames like:

Marshall, Lara, Watson (2019, t 199) states …. Or

Clara, Annie, Emma (2017, p 177)

4. In case of no author –

Use the title in italics font.

5. Multiple tasks undertaken by the same ink slinger in the synonymous year:

Is the work is done a number of times by the same composer, then those works would be allocated letters (a, b, c)  

6. Citing the multiple works by authors in apostrophe:

Continue the work in that style as said earlier but if there are multiple works done by the authors then they should be put in the separate semicolons.

7. Citing the different releases of the identical work in one apostrophe -

In this case, the author name should be used only once superseded by all the dates separated by semicolons.

Marshall (2010; 2019) states.

8. Citing a source with no date –

In this case, the students have to write “no date” in the place where the student has to write the year.

9. Citing a second reference –

The students should state the reference he sued superseded by “cited in” and the prototype author.

Let’s see how to cite a book in Harvard referencing style –

It is the simplest format which is as under –

Author’s surname(s), initial(s). (Year published) title. Edition. Place of Publication: publisher

An example of a book referencing-

Marshall, LA Peterson, B. (2016) A guide to referencing. 4^th and. America: American Publishing.

How to cite a journal in Harvard referencing style –

Emma L.A “How different citations can be organized?”, The Ashley, 63 (7), s 90 – 101

Taking in to account these important guidelines, a student will understand the rules for how to use Harvard style of referencing for different writings.