Subject Guides: Sociology: Referencing

Which citation style should I use?

Sociology students may be required to use one of a number of citation styles, most commonly APA (6th or 7th edition).

It is important that you know which style (and which edition) is required for your assignments in each course. You can find out by looking in your unit guide or checking with your lecturer.

Your online referencing guide: FedCite

Lots of examples, instructions, and tips on citing and referencing. To get started, click on your style. Expand any line with a

Examples and instructions for APA, MLA, Chicago Footnote, IEEE and "Australian Harvard" referencing styles

Go to FedCite

If you use a direct quote, you must include a page number (for works without pages, use some other location identifier e.g. para. 4 for paragraph 4)
"chocolate intake was positively associated with cognitive performance" (Crichton et al., 2016, p. 129)

Authors
- One or two authors: Always use both authors: (Jenkins & Tapper, 2014)
- Three or more authors: Use the first author and et al. all the way through, even the first time: (Kuebler et al., 2015)

In-text citations must match the reference list:

but only if it is dark chocolate (Rusconi et al., 2012)

Rusconi, M., Rossi, M. G., Moccetti, T., & Conti, A. (2012). Acute vascular effects of chocolate in healthy human volunteers. In A. Conti, R. Paoletti, A. Poli, & F. Visioli (Eds.), Chocolate and health (pp. 87-102). Springer.

dangerous for dogs (Department of Primary Industries, 2012).

Department of Primary Industries. (2012). Give a dog a bone, not chocolate this Easter. http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/content/archive/news-releases/agriculture/2012/give-a-dog-a-bone

If you are using a Mac, you will usually have to use the Command or ⌘ or Apple key instead of Ctrl.

Only in Word

APA - hanging indent in the reference list

Ctrl+T - adds a hanging indent to the selected paragraphs (or references)

(Remember, for a Mac use Cmd+T instead)

If you accidentally indent too far, use Shift+Ctrl+T to unindent (Shift+Cmd+T on a Mac)

animation showing selection of references in Word, followed by Ctrl+T to format the selection with a hanging indent

Sorting by A-Z - Word has a feature to sort selected lines or paragraphs (or references) alphabetically. Select your references, and click the A-Z button on the Home tab.

Note: if you don't select your references first, all the paragraphs in your essay will be sorted alphabetically - this is a bad thing, select your references first.

screenshot of Word, indicating locatrion of A-Z sorting icon or button

Changing case - Word has a feature (look for the Aa button) to change case, so you can quickly change a title to correct sentence case.
(Hint: Ctrl+click will select a whole sentence, which often is enough to select a book or journal article title)

Sentence case is what you want, but sometimes going straight to sentence case doesn't work in Word - if this happens, select your article or book title, first change it to lowercase, then change it to sentence case.

You may also need to manually edit it afterwards to start a sub-title with a capital letter.

screenshot from Word, indicating location of icon to change to sentence case

Use them everywhere

Remember, as it mentions above, if you have a Mac then use Cmd instead of Ctrl

Ctrl+A - select All

Ctrl+C - Copy

Ctrl+X - cut (think of X = )

Ctrl+V - paste (think of V = or put it here)

For easier selecting : If you have a laptop touchpad and selecting text is awkward, just put your cursor where you want to start selecting, then (instead of using the touchpad) hold down Shift and use the arrow keys on the keyboard to "drag out" the area of selection.