Technical

Writing
Lecture 13

Referencing and Citation

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REFERENCING

There are two linked elements to referencing a technical document:

 The sources that you used in preparing your document, Journal Papers,

Books, Articles, etc.

 All of the sources are then listed at the end of your document in a

section called List of References or References. Much more rarely in

technical documentation,

 Bibliography may be included; this is a list of materials you have

consulted but not cited in the text.

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IEEE Documentation Style

 IEEE citation style is used primarily for electronics, engineering,

telecommunications, computer science, and information
technology reports. The three main parts of a reference are as
follows:

 Author’s name listed as first initial of first name, then full last.

 Title of article, patent, conference paper, etc., in quotation marks.

 Title of journal or book in italics.

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IEEE CITATION

 Each citation of IEEE must be noted within the text through use of

simple sequential numbers.

 A number enclosed in square brackets, placed in the text of the

report, indicates the specific reference.

 Citations are numbered in the order in which they appear. Once a

source has been cited, the same number is used in all subsequent

references in the report. Technical Writing

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IEEE Example

 Each reference number should be enclosed in square brackets on the same line as
the text, before any punctuation, with a space before the bracket.
 Examples:
 “. . .end of the line for my research [13].”

 “The theory was first put forward in 1987 [1].”

 “Scholtz [2] has argued. . . .”

 “For example, see [7].”

 “Several recent studies [3, 4, 15, 22] have suggested that. . . .”

 Note: Authors and dates do not have to be written out after the first reference; use
the bracketed number. Also, it is not necessary to write “in reference [2].” Just
write “in [2].”
 The preferred method to cite more than one source at a time is to list each
reference in its own brackets, then separate with a comma or dash: [1], [3], [5] or
[1] – [5]
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REFERENCES LIST (CONT’D)

 IEEE Style

Book
[1] B. P. Lathi, Linear Systems and Signals. London:
Oxford University Press, 2001.

Book, Multiple Authors

[2] S. Horner, T. Zimmerman and S. Dragga, Technical
Marketing Communication. New York: Longman,
2002.
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REFERENCES LIST (CONT’D)

 IEEE Style

New Edition of a Book

[3] C. Conrad and M. S. Poole, Strategic Organizational
Communication, 5th ed. New York: Harcourt Press, 2002.

Journal Article
[4] R. F. Boehm, “Heat engineering,” Developments in the
Design of Thermal Systems, vol. 16, no. 6, pp. 190 – 206,
June 1997.
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REFERENCES LIST
(CONT’D)
 IEEE Style

Course Notes
[5] A. S. Erickson, Lab Notes for EE464K, Senior Projects, The
University of Texas at Austin, Spring semester, 2003.

Dissertation or Thesis
[6] G. Davis, “Adaptive nonlinear approximation,” Ph.D.
dissertation, New York University, New York, Sept.
1994.
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REFERENCES LIST (CONT’D)

 IEEE Style

Course Notes
[5] A. S. Erickson, Lab Notes for EE464K, Senior Projects, The
University of Texas at Austin, Spring semester, 2003.

Dissertation or Thesis
[6] G. Davis, “Adaptive nonlinear approximation,” Ph.D.
dissertation, New York University, New York, Sept.
1994.
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REFERENCES LIST (CONT’D)

 IEEE Style

Proceedings Paper
[7] N. Coppola, “Computer-based training for chemist:
Designing decision-making tools for green chemistry,” in
Proceedings of the International Professional Communication
Conference, pp. 77 – 83, Portland, OR, Sept. 17 – 20, 2002.

Newspaper Article
[8] “Virus overwhelms global Internet Systems,” The New York
Times, vol. 116, pp. A3, A8, January 27, 2003.

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REFERENCES LIST (CONT’D)

 IEEE Style

Letter or Email
[9] Letter [or Email] from A. R. Hasan, Project Manager, Oracle,
Boston, Massachusetts, Jan. 5, 2003.

World Wide Web

[10] “At & T enters Indian residential local phone market,”
http://www.att.com Accessed Jan. 26, 2003.
[11] “Nokia introduces the world’s first handset for WCDMA and
GSM networks,” http://press.nokia.com/pr2002_3.html Accessed
Jan. 27, 2003.

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Harvard Reference Style Guide

 When referring to any work that is NOT a journal, such as a book,

article, or Web page, capitalise only the first letter of the first word

of a title and subtitle, the first word after a colon or a dash in the

title, and proper nouns.

 Do not capitalise the first letter of the second word in a hyphenated

compound word.

 Capitalise all major words in journal titles.

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 Harvard Reference Style Guide

 If within the same paragraph, reference is made to the same

author(s) for a second and further time(s), the year of publication
is omitted in the second and further references - as long as it does
not lead to confusion.
 Order of Listing:
 The List of References is ordered alphabetically by primary authors'
surnames.
 Multiple authors: Use the sequence of authors' surnames exactly as given in
the publication. The primary author, ie, major contributor, is listed first by
the publisher.
 Same author:
 different years: list the author's references chronologically, starting with the earliest
date.
 same year: use an alphabetical suffix (eg 1983a, 1983b).
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REFERENCES LIST

 The author-date (Harvard) system.

Book (with page number)

Benham, P.P. and Crawford, R.J. (1987) Mechanics of
Engineering Materials. Longman Scientific and
Technical, Harlow, pp. 66 – 68.
Gordon, J.E. (1978) Structures or Why Things Don’t Fall
Down. Penguin, Harmondsworth, pp. 78 – 89.

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REFERENCES LIST

 The author-date (Harvard) system.

Chapter in Book. The book is Volume 9 of a series called

Technology and Culture
Hacker, B.C. (1968) ‘Greek catapults and catapult technology:
science, technology and war in the ancient world.’ In:
Technology and Culture, 9, No. 1, pp. 34 – 50.

Paper in Journal
Hart, V.G. (1982) The law of the Greek catapult. Bull. Inst.
Math. Appl., 18, 58 – 68.

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REFERENCES LIST

 The author-date (Harvard) system.

Article in magazine, no volume number

O’Connor, L. (1994) Building a better trebuchet. Mechanical
Engineering, January, 66 – 69.

Editorial in magazine

O’Leary, J. (1994) Reversing the siege mentality. Mechanical

Engineering, January, 4.

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REFERENCES LIST

 The author-date (Harvard) system.

Article in Journal with volume number (240) in bold face

Soedel, W. and Foley, V. (1979) Ancient catapults. Scientific
American, 240, 150 – 160.

More than two authors. An ‘et al.’ reference in the text

Wainwright, S.A., et al. (1976) Mechanical Design in Organisms.
Princeton University Press, Princeton, pp. 88 – 93.

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APA (American Psychological Association)
Reference Style

 It is the reference style that is the mostly commonly used format

for manuscripts in the social sciences.

• Center the title (References) at

the top of the page. Do not bold
it.

• Double-space reference entries

• Order entries alphabetically by

the surname of the first author of
each work.

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APA Citation

• Invert authors’ names (last name first followed by initials)

EX:“Smith, J.Q.”

• Capitalize only the first letter of the first word of a title and subtitle, the first
word after a colon or a dash in the title, and proper nouns. Do not capitalize
the first letter of the second word in a hyphenated compound word.
EX: The perfectly formatted paper: How the Purdue OWL saved my essay.

• Capitalize all major words in journal titles

• Italicize titles of longer works such as books and journals

• Do not italicize, underline, or put quotes around the titles of shorter works
such as journal articles or essays in edited collections
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APA Citation: In-text Citation

 In-text citations help readers locate the cited source in the References section
of the paper.

 Whenever you use a source, provide in parenthesis:

• The author’s name and the date of publication
• For quotations and close paraphrases, provide the author’s name, date of
publication, and a page number

Example:

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APA Citation: In-text Citation

 Provide the author’s last name and the year of publication in parenthesis after
a summary or a paraphrase.

 Include the author’s name in the signal phrase, followed by the year of
publication in parenthesis.

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APA Citation: In-text Citation

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