Essay and Referencing Guidelines
By Charles Hopkins
Published 11/28/2007 | Education
1. First and foremost, although this may seem obvious, you should make sure that you answer the question that has been set.
2. Begin by underlining the most important keywords in the question
and even put them into your own words just to be certain that you know
what you are being asked to write about. This will focus your mind to
the task in hand.
3. Stick to the subject and don't wander off into irrelevant areas, as this will lose you marks.
4. Be sure to use paragraphs and keep to one subject/argument per paragraph.
5. Move your essay along by using signposts at the beginning of
your paragraphs, i.e. furthermore, so, therefore, further etc. etc.
These signposts keep the momentum of what you are saying and keep
6. It is usual to use double spacing throughout your essay and to
indent the first line of each paragraph between 3-5 spaces, with the
exception of the first paragraph, which is usually wholly aligned to
7. Use quotes from resources sparingly, as these will almost
certainly be included in your word count. However, the bibliography at
the end of your essay is not usually included in the word count. (It
would probably be best to check with your tutor/professor/teacher on
this particular point.)
Your essay should consist of an introduction, the main body and a conclusion:
You will only need one paragraph or at the most 2 in this section.
Use your introduction to outline what you are aiming to do in your
essay - introduce your intentions and how you are going to go about
answering the set question. Keep this section as brief as you can.
The Main Body
This is where all your arguments will take place including for and against.
Include any quotes from your research as evidence to back up your
arguments. These will probably be from course textbooks as well as any
resources that you have found while researching the subject of your
Be sure to keep careful note of any resources that you find - it is
easy to subconsciously use what you have read, and without referencing
it you run the risk of being accused or plagiarism (trying to pass off
material that isn't your own work).
Keep this section for the conclusion to your arguments, making sure
that you do not include any new material - leave that for the main
This section will bring your essay to a close where you can sum up your arguments and show that you have reached a conclusion.
Some people outline their conclusion before they start on their
essay - they find that this gives them a focus as they work through
their arguments. This may work for you, or you may find other ways that
work best for you.
You could also write a plan by using bullet points as to what you
are going to include in each section before attempting to write your
essay. Again this is personal preference - try different ways of
working until you find what is best for you. Everyone is different.
Once you have written your essay, leave it a few days before
reading it over. Then print it out and read it through - you can even
read it out loud if that suits. Then make any changes and go through
the process again and again until you are absolutely satisfied with it.
It is essential that you reference material that is not your own
work - readers can find and read your resources and, most importantly,
you won't be accused of plagiarism.
The most commonly used referencing system in academic essays is the
Harvard Referencing System. You place the author and the date of the
resource in the main body of the essay and list a bibliography at the
very end, which contains the full reference of each resource that you
In the main body of the essay:
Integrate the author and the year of the resource in brackets -
i.e. (Author, 2007). This can include the page numbers if known, i.e.
(Author, 2007, p.123)
Example of use:
This is a typical example of a reference (Author, 2007, p.221) with the resource clearly shown integrated into your writing.
If you use direct quotes from a resource, they should be in
quotation marks to show that they are not your words. If it is a longer
passage, it should be intended forming a separate paragraph.
The Bibliography or Reference List
Every single reference to your resources in the essay must be
referenced in full in your bibliography. These are listed
alphabetically by the surname of the author and should be referenced as
Author, (date) Title of Book, The place of publication, Name of Publisher.
Bloggs, J. (2007) His First Book, London: Bloggs Publishing.
The title of the book should be in Italics or underlined.
Author, (date) Title of Article, Title of Journal, part number, page numbers (beginning of article - end of article)
Bloggs, J. (2007) 'His first article', His First Journal, 2, 4 150-195.
The title of the journal should be in Italics or underlined.
Chapters in edited books:
In the main essay - the author of the chapter, date of the book.
In the bibliography:
The author of the chapter, (date of chapter) reference to the book.
Bloggs, J. (2007) Bloggs First Chapter. In A.N. Other (Ed) Bloggs First Book (pp.85-100). London: Bloggs Publishing.
The title of the book should be in Italics or underlined.
Use the page numbers of the chapter that you have used as a resource.
Preferably use the author, date and title - If you can't find the
date of the web page you can mark it as 'date unknown'. You may not be
able to find the author, in which case you can either use the
organization or use 'author unknown'. You should also include the date
that you accessed the website because web pages can be changed or even
be removed entirely.
Author. A. (2007) Title of Website, http://webpageaddress.com/page.html
, Date accessed 1/10/2007.
The title of the website should be in Italics or underlined. You
can find the title by looking in the top left hand corner of the
browser - this usually shows the website title.
Author, A. (2007) A Guide To A CD ROM, CD-ROM, London: CD Publishers.
The title of the CD-ROM should be in Italics or underlined.
It is important to check with your tutor/professor/teacher as to
which form of referencing should be used in your essay - most academic
essays make use of the Harvard Referencing System, but there are
exceptions - some institutions have their own preferences.