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FACULTY OF BUSINESS AND LAW

DISCIPLINE OF POLITICS &

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

ESSAY WRITING GUIDE

This guide applies to all written assignments such as essays, projects, reports, tutorial papers, take home exams (unless specified

otherwise specified by a Course Coordinator in their Course Outline).

2016

POLITICS & INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

ESSAY WRITING GUIDE 2016

This Essay Writing Guide has been produced to give you specific advice and guidance on the art and mechanics of essay writing. Before beginning any writing assignment it is necessary to ask yourself three basic questions: 1. FOR WHOM AM I WRITING? This means that you need to consider your

intended audience. Are you writing something for other students, lecturers/tutors, or a prospective employer? Once you have identified your audience you can tailor your writing to meet their expectations and background knowledge. This will enable you to decide what sort of information, at what level of complexity, and how much detail is required.

2. WHY AM I WRITING? That is, what is the purpose of your writing? You may be presenting an argument, an evaluation, a report, or merely a description of some event or process. However, it is important to be clear about what you are doing so that you do not lose sight of the point of the assignment.

3. HOW AM I GOING TO WRITE? This refers to how you go about organising your material in terms of planning, drafting and revising what you write.

A. GENERAL WRITING POINTS Essays, tutorial papers, reports, and other written assignments are the means by which lecturers establish that you have gained an appropriate understanding of a particular subject area. In all written assignments you will be expected to engage in critical thinking, which means:

• analysing problems or issues • constructing arguments • expressing your thoughts clearly

In general, will expect you to have:

• read widely on the topic • understood what you have read • understood and discussed the main issues of the set topic • presented a clear, reasoned argument that reaches a logical

conclusion. Lecturers/tutors will evaluate these broad goals in terms of a number of more specific categories. All Course Outlines in the Discipline of Politics & International Relations will specify the relevant academic criteria for assessment. A word of caution: avoid writing an essay that appeals to what you think might be the lecturer’s pet interests or prejudices. This might seem like a good strategy but in most cases it will lead not to success, but to poor results if not failure. Lecturers in Politics and International Relations usually do not object to essays that disagree with their personal views. What they object to are essays that are

• badly written • poorly researched • poorly argued • poorly referenced • full of unsubstantiated opinions

Some Writing Principles

• Your aim as a writer should be to communicate your ideas as simply as possible. In most cases this will be achieved by using short, direct sentences rather than sentences that are long and convoluted. Short sentences tend to quicken the tempo of your writing whereas long sentences slow the pace of

reading as they require a bit more reflection on the part of the reader to take in the author’s meaning. Varying the length of sentences is an effective way of maintaining a reader’s interest.

• Another important consideration is that long sentences run the risk of losing your reader in a sea of words. This is because your reader might lose the thread of your argument or get bored (no matter how carefully constructed the sentence). You also might mix up or confuse key points thereby preventing your reader from understanding your argument. Long sentences also increase the chance of grammatical errors emerging.

• This does not mean that you should only use short sentences. Writing consisting of only short sentences would leave the reader feeling breathless. Sentence length should be determined not by a commitment to shortness, but by a desire to use just those words that will convey the appropriate meaning.

• Wherever possible, use short, familiar words rather than long, unfamiliar words. At times it will be necessary to use unfamiliar words (either for you or your readers or both). The point is to ensure that the use of unfamiliar words does not lead to the alienation or exclusion of your readers.

These objectives can be achieved by ensuring that you write as directly as possible. Apart from being selective in using long, unfamiliar words you should be on your guard against redundant words and phrases, dead words, clichés, and irrelevant material. As a writer your aim is to convey your meaning as clearly and concisely as possible. This means that you do not use any more words than are necessary to communicate your ideas. At the same time, you need to guard against leaving out essential information in the name of conciseness. The aim is not brevity (ie a few words) but conciseness (no unnecessary words) and clarity (clearness of expression). B. GENERAL ASSIGNMENT POINTS 1. Ask yourself:

• What is the assignment question/topic asking you to do? • To what problem is it referring? • What are the central/relevant issues for the topic? • What information will you need to answer the question or to cover

the topic? Your reader is interested in finding out whether you understand the major aspects of the problems or issues raised or required by the essay question. It

does not matter whether your reader disagrees with your conclusion, so long as you have provided a logical argument that rests on appropriate and reliable evidence to substantiate your case.

2. You must acknowledge all relevant aspects of an issue. That is, your essay must

not be limited to material or evidence that supports your particular conclusion (even if you end up “sitting on the fence” with respect to drawing a final conclusion). You must demonstrate that you are aware of all the key issues that are relevant for your assignment question.

Any opinions you have about an issue must be logically and rationally supported by the available evidence. They must be presented within the framework of an argument. In showing your understanding of opposing points of view, of the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments, you demonstrate that you understand the topic or question.

3. A substantial range of research must be undertaken for politics essays and

tutorial papers. This means that you must read beyond the lecture notes (or lecture handouts). You are expected to utilise resources in the library to develop your arguments. Do not rely on copies of politics lectures as your only source of information. Lectures provide you with overviews and basic arguments relevant for given topics. They are your starting point, not your finishing point. Essays based only on the lectures and one or two supporting references are not adequately researched. If you find it necessary to quote from a lecture (for instance because the lecturer has adopted a particular view which you wish to discuss, or has quoted a source that you have been unable to find elsewhere) then you must reference these sources in your text just as you would any other source. In all Politics courses merely repeating the lecturer’s analysis or point of view throughout your essay without critical commentary is insufficient. It demonstrates inadequate essay preparation.

As a general rule, and one which will be enforced by markers, lecture notes SHOULD NOT TO BE CITED as research sources in assessment tasks.

C. WRITING YOUR ESSAY Write early, write often, write regularly. The earlier you start producing drafts of your essay, even if the thoughts are only half-formed in your mind, the sooner those thoughts become clarified. Early writing is early thinking! Your essay will need to be logically structured. It will need to have an Introduction, a Body of Analysis, and a Conclusion.

C.1 ESSAY INTRODUCTION 1. An Introduction should give your reader a clear idea of where the essay

will be heading. It makes it easier for your reader to follow the rest of the essay. You must briefly state what your main argument will be, and perhaps even foreshadow the conclusion you will reach.

Above all, the Introduction must show your reader that you have a clear idea concerning what the essay question is asking you to do. You can state what you understand the essay question to be asking, and then you can state what you will do in your argument in order to answer that essay question. You may briefly point out the steps you will take in order to reach that conclusion (e.g. pointing out the various stages your argument will take).

C.2 ESSAY BODY

1. There are three important things to remember in regards to the main body of your essay:

(a) Each paragraph follows the preceding one to form a progressive

argument that will lead to a specific conclusion. (b) Each paragraph develops a key point in your discussion (c) Each paragraph is therefore relevant to answering the question.

DO NOT use one-sentence paragraphs. They signal to your reader that you have a limited ability to develop your thought processes. DO NOT use dot points. In most Politics essays of moderate length (ie less than 3500 words) dot points are normally not necessary. However, if your assignment is a report then the use of dot points might be appropriate.

DO NOT use headings in essays of 3500 words or less (or unless specifically requested to do so by your lecturer).

2. There are no marks given for irrelevant argument or discussion, no matter

how well written or researched. Every paragraph should contribute directly to answering the essay question as set. When you make a major point in your paragraphs it is a good idea to link these to the essay question to show how these points are relevant to answering it.

In your essay preparation it is often useful to make summaries of the main

point of each paragraph on a separate sheet of paper. This list of main points will then allow you to see whether one follows the other to reach your conclusion. It also allows you to understand the steps you have taken to substantiate your conclusion.

3. In drafting your essay, ask yourself:

• Is the structure and development of the argument clear (leaving your reader in no doubt about why you have made the points you have done in order to reach your conclusion)?

• Have you avoided unnecessary repetition of the same point? • Are some points isolated, in the sense of not contributing to an

ongoing argument? If so, rethink their relevance; and if they are not relevant, delete them.

Words like “therefore”, “thus”, “hence” and phrases like “so it follows that” should be used with care. They indicate that a conclusion is being drawn from what goes before, and should only be used when this is the case.

4. It is important to demonstrate your understanding of the key terms relevant for your topic. Key terms may be present in the essay question, or they may be terms which you use in the essay itself. Above all, a key term is one that is relevant for understanding and discussing your particular topic. More often than not key terms will be contentious, or open to various interpretations. Consequently, you might need to give some definition of a key term to show the reader precisely in what way you will be using this term.

5. When you make contentious or controversial claims, you need to

substantiate them with evidence and argument. Substantiation can include providing descriptive evidence in your argument (which must be

referenced), or it can also include referring to other texts that have made a similar argument.

6. If you provide direct quotes from other sources, make sure these quotes

are relevant to your argument, either because they illustrate a point, substantiate a claim, or enable you toexpand your argument in new directions. Quotations often require explanation (where you show why they are relevant to your argument), or critical evaluation (where you discuss your agreement or disagreement with the points raised in the quotation). Rarely should quotations simply be left on their own, isolated from a broader explanatory context, unless their meaning and relevance to your argument is self-explanatory.

7. Finally, please be aware that block quotations (and title pages and

reference lists) are not normally considered to be part of your essay’s word count.

You are being assessed on the basis of what you write, not on words of others that you include to support your argument. Thus block quotations (and extensive use of in-sentence quotations) should not be used to pad your essay. Quotations should be used sparingly. You will be penalised if you over-use quotations or if your use of quotations affects your own contribution to the essay.

8. Details about how to reference (Sections E and G) and how to quote

(Section F) are provided later in the Essay Writing Guide. However, here it is important to appreciate the reasons why you need to provide references and why you need to develop good referencing skills.

(a) Acknowledgment of Sources.

(i) All points made in your essay which are not your own ideas, but which you have derived from an external source, must contain acknowledgment of that source in a reference. If you do not provide acknowledgment, you are passing off somebody else’s work or ideas as your own. This is known as plagiarism. The university defines plagiarism as “the presentation of the thoughts or works of another as one’s own. Without limiting the generality of this definition, it may include:

i. copying or paraphrasing material from any source without due acknowledgment; ii using another person’s ideas without due acknowledgment; iii collusion or working with others without permission, and presenting the resulting work as though it was completed independently.”

Details about university policies on Student Academic Integrity and Student Academic Dishonesty can be accessed at: http://www.newcastle.edu.au/policylibrary/000608.html. (ii) References are required not only when you have directly quoted from the source (which of course requires placing the quote in inverted commas), but also when you have expressed the source’s ideas in your own words.

(b) Evidence

(i) References provide the source of your evidence to support your views or claims. They should be cited whenever those views are not your own or are sufficiently controversial that they require substantiation from external authorities.

(ii) It is a good idea when you are taking notes while researching your essay always to list the author, book title and (most importantly) the page number against the notes you are taking. This makes referencing easier when writing your essay.

Your referencing enables your reader to find the exact edition or reprint of the work that you consulted, and so they can assess for themselves its worth and relevance for your argument. This is often important when working with primary source documents or particular editions of a published work.

(d) Competency of research skills Your reference list provides evidence of your degree of familiarity with the literature that is relevant for your essay. Too few references might indicate that you have not gained an adequate understanding of the issues, evidence or arguments that are necessary for a competent discussion of your topic.

C.3 ESSAY CONCLUSION 1. A conclusion should follow from the previous paragraphs in the essay,

all of which build the case that supports the conclusion. No new points should be included in a conclusion. Any new points, which support the conclusion, are part of the argument leading to it and so should be included in previous paragraphs. Make sure that your conclusion

• refers to the essay question, • provides a final answer to essay question, • matches the conclusion that you foreshadowed in your

introduction, and • ends the essay question in the way that you suggested in your

introduction.

2. Proof read your essay several times before submission. Use a spellchecker if your essay is created using a computer.

D. WRITING YOUR ESSAY D.1 Write early, write often, write regularly. D.2 Note-taking is also very important. It is pointless reading lots of books and articles without taking appropriate notes because you will eventually forget much of what you read, or else forget why it was relevant at the time you read it.

• Always take notes while reading, but your notes should not reproduce the text that you are reading. They should be prompts, key quotations, and thoughts about what you have read (or a combination of all three).

• Always create a 200-300 word summary of each article, book chapter, and book that you read for your essay. Books will generally require longer summaries than articles or individual chapters.

• Make sure that you include with those notes the full details of the source (author, title, publication details and date).

• Where you have made notes of the actual words of your source ensure that you have recorded the page number(s) indicating where the quoted material is to be found.

Do not use note-taking as a substitute for writing your essay. You will need to spend a lot of time reading and note-taking. However, do not wait to start writing the first draft of your essay until you have read everything of relevance. This will

leave you with a pile of notes and a whole lot of thoughts in your head, but with no idea how to start because all of the ideas are jumping out at once. Towards the end of each research or reading session you should allow a little time to summarise your progress. These summaries can then be used to help you organise your essay draft. D.3 Language use D3.1.1 In writing your essays you should always try to use language that is inclusive. Do not use demeaning language, slang, colloquial expressions or swear words. You should avoid words that perpetuate or reinforce negative stereotypes based on sex, race, gender, ethnicity, physical or mental disability, age and so on. In academic writing, demeaning or belittling language is not acceptable. Unless you are quoting a source directly in which such language occurs, you must use academically appropriate language. D3.1.2 Avoid writing in the first person – eg ‘I think’, or ‘my view’ or similar – unless you are specifically requested to do so by your lecturer. In an essay it is assumed that the thoughts are yours unless you indicate otherwise by the use of the referencing techniques noted below. D3.2 – Spelling Please use Australian English in accordance with the conventions of Macquarie Dictionary. In cases where words could use either an ‘s’ or ‘z’ (e.g. marginalise; globalisation; legitimise and similar), please use an ‘s’. Set your computer program to Australian English. D3.3 Capitalisation Use uppercase for formal organisations, institutions and certain titles (e.g., ‘President Obama’, ‘the Prime Minister, Mr Abbott’). The following Table, taken from The Australian Journal of Political Science Style Guide (2014: 3), gives some examples. socialism, socialist the Socialist Party of Albania the state (as an institution) the states and territories of Australia the State of Queensland the Premier of Tasmania Second World War Western Europe

White Paper Southeast Asia the Labor Party, Labor the Catholic church, Catholics War on Terror Western political thought the Victorian Parliament the US Congress

Australian Constitution (specific) constitution (general) the Cultural Revolution the Howard government the Commonwealth government Muslim Australians

parliamentary practice House of Representatives, Senate High Court the Crown Warsaw Pact

D3.4 Dates Dates should be written as: 9 January 2001. Periods of time should be written as: 1990s (not 1990's); 1994–95 (not 1994–1995); 1999–2000. E. TITLE PAGE Make sure you have included a Title Page at the front of your essay that contains the following information: 1. Your name. 2. The Essay or Tutorial Question accurately written. 3. The course code (POLIXXX) and Course Title. 4. Your tutorial day and time. 5. Your tutor’s name. 6. Due Date 7. If necessary, please state clearly if your paper is an essay or tutorial paper. • MAKE SURE you submit your assignment in the manner specified in your

Course Guide or as instructed by the Course Coordinator. Consult your Course guide.

• MAKE SURE your hard copy (if used) has the specified line-spacing and uses 12 font, New Times Roman. If you are required to submit your assignment in hard copy then you may use both sides of the paper (except for the title page). If you are required to submit an electronic version then single line spacing is acceptable.

• MAKE SURE you have numbered each page of your essay.

• MAKE SURE you have saved/kept a copy of your essay before submitting

it.

• MAKE SURE you have PROOF READ your essay. Use your word- processor’s spell-check function; do not rely on it to pick up common errors involving correctly spelt, but mis-used words (eg there/their; affect/effect; were/where; etc).

• DO NOT fax any written assignment to the School or Faculty.

• DO NOT place any written assignment under your lecturer/tutor’s office

door.

• DO NOT use footnotes as a referencing system in Politics assignments. F. REFERENCING F.1 Overview of referencing At university you will be required to identify and acknowledge the exact sources of the information, ideas and quotations that you have used to produce your essay.

A list of these sources is known as a reference list. It is placed at the end of your essay. It is arranged in alphabetical order by surname or family name of the author. However, the sources will also need to be referenced in your text whenever they are used. There is no hard and fast guide as to how many sources you should use as this will vary according to the level of enrolment (ie POLI1xxx, 2xxx, 3xxx) and type of assignment. The number of sources should be sufficient to demonstrate to your reader that you have read widely enough to have covered the key issues raised by the essay topic/question. However, as a general guide for Politics assignments you should aim for a minimum of: Eight (8) for 1000 level essays Ten (10) to twelve (12) for 2000 level essays Twelve (12) to fifteen (15) for 3000 level essays In many style guides it is now optional to drop ‘p’ or ‘pp’ when indicating pages. Remember, unless you are referring to an author’s book, article or essay as a whole, you will need to include page numbers to indicate the exact place in the book or article where you reader can find the quoted words or ideas.

F.2 IN-TEXT REFERENCING In-text references (or included references or author-dating) mean that your sources appear within the text of your assignment. The main advantage is that they achieve an economy of space in a quite efficient manner. There is little or no interruption to the flow of ideas in the text of your essay. In the Politics Discipline the preferred style guide is based on that used by the Australian Journal of Political Science, which uses a variation on the Harvard and Australian Government Printing Service Style Guide. The material that follows provides advice on formatting sources for a reference list that appears at the end of your essay. All essays must have a reference list. How to reference:

² Books ² Editor as Author ² Journals (Periodicals) ² Standard Reference Works ² Newspapers ² Theses ² Conference Proceedings ² Electronic Media Sources ² Online Sources

Advice on how to cite source material in the text of your essay can be found below in Section G: Quotation Conventions. F.2.1 Books Examples are given for:

Single Author Two Authors Three Authors Four Authors Corporate Authorship

F.2.1 (i) Books: Single Author

Jose, J. 1998. Biopolitics of the subject: An introduction to the ideas of Michel Foucault. Darwin: Northern Territory University Press.

F.2.1 (ii) Books: Two Authors Motta, S. C. and Cole M. 2014. Constructing 21st Century Socialism in Latin

America: The Role of Radical Education. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

F.2.1 (iii) Books: Three Authors

Imre, R., Mooney, T. B. and Clarke, B. 2008. Responding to terrorism: Political, philosophical and legal perspectives. London: Ashgate.

F.2.1 (iv) Books: Four Authors

Binney, M., Harris, J., Martin, K. and Curtin, M. 1991. Jamaica’s heritage, an untapped resource. Kingston: Mill Press.

F.2.1 (v) Books: Corporate Authorship

Australian Government Printing Service. 1996. Style manual for authors, editors and printers. 5th ed. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade[DFAT]. 1999. Annual report 1998-

99.Canberra: AGPS. Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters [JCEM]. 1990. 1990 Federal

election: Report. Canberra: AGPS. F.2.2 Editor as Author This includes books that are collections of essays, articles, readings or papers. The individual essays are authored by different people writing separately but are published under the editorship of one more people. F.2.2 (i) Single Editor

Reiter, R. ed. 1975. Towards an anthropology of women. New York: Monthly Review Press.

F.2.2 (ii) Multiple Editors

Caine, B., Grosz, E.A. and de Lepervanche, M. eds 1988. Crossing boundaries: Feminisms and the critique of knowledges. Sydney: Allen and Unwin.

F.2.3 Essay in Edited Collection

Turner, B.S. 1985. The practices of rationality: Michel Foucault, medical history and sociological reality. In: R. Fardon, ed. Power and

Knowledge: Anthropological and Sociological Approaches. Edinburgh: Scottish Edinburgh Press.

F.2.4 Reprint Editions Marx, K. and Engels, F. [1848] 1964. The Communist Manifesto. Reprint. New York: Monthly Review Press. F.2.5 Journals (Periodicals) The article title is placed within single quotation marks, employing capital letter for all nouns, followed by the journal name then the volume number and numbers of the first and last pages; an En Dash (–) is used to separate these. If the pagination of the journal begins anew with each issue, put the issue number in parentheses and add a space after the colon. For journal articles it has become customary to specify the page numbers without using the abbreviations ‘p.’ or ‘pp.’. F.2.5 (i) Single Author

Tate, J.W. 2001. Giving substance to Murphy’s Law. The question of Australian sovereignty. Monash University Law Review 27: 21-77.

F.2.5 (ii) Two Authors

Jose, J. and Burgess, J. 2005. Working nation, the ethos of competition, and the transformation of public policy. Journal of Economic and Social Policy 9 (2): 19-33.

E.2.5 (iii) Multiple Authors

Jose, J., Convery, A., McLoughlin, K., and Owen, S. 2011. Reproducing political subjects: Feminist theory and the political science curriculum. Australian Journal of Political Science. 46: 535-49.

F.2.6 Standard Reference Works Well known reference works, such as atlases and dictionaries, are usually not cited by their editors as these tend to change over time. Consequently, standard reference works are known by their titles.

The Macquarie illustrated world atlas. 1984. Sydney: Macquarie Library. F.2.7 Newspapers For newspapers the definite article ‘The’ is dropped in your text when it is the first word of the title of a newspaper (e.g. The Times is cited as Times, The Advertiser as Advertiser, and so on). Page numbers, if known, require the appropriate

abbreviations of ‘p.’ for ‘page’ and ‘pp.’ for ‘pages’. Since some newspaper names are found in various parts of the English-speaking world, it is sometimes necessary to cite the place of publication to avoid confusion. For electronic sources, provide URL and date consulted. F.2.7 (i) Author’s Name Known

McGregor, C. 2008. Cartoons taste great whatever the style. The Herald. 29 September. p. 7.

F.2.7 (ii) Author’s Name Unknown

Northern Territory News. 22 Aug. 1998. p. 4. F.2.7 (iii) Electronic Sources

Scott, E. 2010. Bandt officially declared an MP. The Age 10 September. URL: <http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/bandt-officially- declaredan-mp-20100910-15484.html>. Consulted 5 April 2013.

F.2.8 Parliamentary Papers Debates in the Australian parliament are recorded in Hansard, and may be referred in the text of your article in the following manner: ‘Senator Joyce supported the motion (Hansard 2009).’ Please provide full details of the specific debate in the reference list in the following way: Commonwealth Parliament of Australia [Hansard]. 2009. Senate Parliamentary Debates, Official Hansard, 1 July, column 4521. You can substitute House of Representatives for Senate as appropriate. Similarly, for state parliaments you name them by their state (e.g. as Parliament of NSW) and then cite which House is being referred to. F.2.9 Theses The titles of theses are not italicised (or underlined) as they are generally not regarded as published works.

Pforr, C. 2003. Tourism public policy in the Northern Territory of Australia –

a process facilitating sustainability? A policy study of the Northern Territory Tourism Development Masterplan. PhD Thesis, Northern Territory University.

Bakar, H. A. 2005. The defence of the soft peg rates: A study of the Bank of

Thailand 1942-1997. MEc (Politics) Thesis, University of Newcastle.

McLoughlin, K-R. 2007. Narratives of consent: Exploring the various facets

and constructions of consent in rape cases. BA Honours Thesis, University of Newcastle.

F.2.10 Conference Papers F.2.10 (i) Unpublished Conference Papers

Blandy, R. 1993. The state of the Australian academic labour market. Paper presented to Conference on Higher Education and Immigration Issues. National Institute of Labour Studies, Adelaide, June 28.

F.2.10 (ii) Published Conference Papers

Moore, T. 2010. Dinner clubs, imperial Liberals, and the origins of the political think tank. Australian Political Studies Association Annual Conference, University of Melbourne, 27-29 September. Online at: http://apsa2010.com.au/full-papers/pdf/APSA2010_0272.pdf.

F.2.11 Electronic/Digital Sources These are generally identified by stating the name of the non-print medium immediately after the title, usually in square brackets.

F.2.11 (i) Computer Programs

Anderson, J. 1996. Text detective [Computer Program]. Melbourne: Dataworks.

F.2.11 (ii) CD-Roms

The marketing mix [CD-ROM] 1995. Yorkshire International Thompson Multimedia, Leeds.

Note that the above CD-ROM does not have a listed author. However, some do and this will need to be included before the title. F.2.11 (iii) Video & Audio Cassettes

Lateline 1996. Reconciliation [Videotape]. Sydney: Australian Broadcasting Commission.

F.2.12 Internet or Online Sources F.2.12 (i) Already Published Material This is material that has already been published in a printed form, but which has now been made available electronically via the internet. Citation is much the same as for printed material with the addition of two key bits of information:

² online location cited after details about the article.

² date on which you accessed the material. When citing a website address (known as a Uniform Resource Locator or URL) take care to ensure that there are no spaces in the URL address. Note that URL addresses are case sensitive – that is, your browser will not recognise capital letters if there are none in the address, or if a lower case letter is used instead of a capital letter.

Bacchi, C. and Jose, J. 1994. Historicising sexual harassment. Women’s

History Review, 3 (2): 263-270. URL: <http://www.triangle.co.uk/whr/whr-3_2htm#cb>. Consulted 24 August 1997.

F.2.11 (ii) Internet Published Material This is information that you obtain from a website. The reference is given in much the same way as you would for an unpublished printed work with the addition of information about the address of the website and the date on which you accessed the material.

Cole, S. 1995. Bibliographic essay: The world of Emma Goldman. The Emma Goldman Papers. URL: <http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/Guide/bibliography.html>. Consulted 24 August 1997.

Howard, J. 1999. ‘Address to National Press Club 8 December 1999’. PM’s

Media Centre: Speeches by Hon John Howard. Canberra: Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. URL: <http://www.pm.gov.au/media/pressrel/1999/pressclubr0812.htm>. Consulted 25 January 2000.

G. Quotation Conventions G.1 What to Quote As a general rule, you should only quote what is absolutely necessary for your point or argument. If you decide that a direct quotation is needed then there is only one rule to observe in reproducing your source’s material.

v You must quote the material exactly as it appears in your source’s text.

This means that you must reproduce your source’s words, punctuation, spelling, and capitalisation exactly as your source presents them.

You may only alter the wording of your quote if: • The tense of the quoted material conflicts with the tense of your

text. • The subject of the quoted sentence is a non-specific pronoun. • Some additional words are needed to clarify the meaning. • To reduce the amount of quoted material by leaving out words or

sentences.

♦ Adding material is known as interpolation. All such material should be included within square brackets (ie […]).

♦ Removing material is known as ellipsis. An ellipsis is shown by using three

single-spaced full stops (ie ‘…’).

Under no circumstances should your interpolation or ellipsis alter the sense or intended meaning of your source material. G.2 How To Quote The following looks at in-text methods of referencing for

♦ Direct quotations within a sentence ♦ Direct quotations exceeding three lines (i.e. block quotes) ♦ Paraphrasing ♦ Other common quoting conventions

With in-text referencing you cite the name of the author, the year and the page number or numbers. There is no distinction made between the type of material (ie book, journal, electronic or whatever) being cited. Those distinctions are noted in the entries in your reference list at the end of your essay. G.2.1 Direct quotations within a sentence, sometime referred to as in-line quoting (Examples originally presented in AJPS Style Guide, 2014): G.2.1 (i). If author’s name is in the text, follow with year in parentheses:

‘Considine (1999) has argued that ...’.

G.2.1 (ii). If author’s name is not in the text, insert last name and year:

‘Some have claimed (Sawer 1995) that ...’.

In both of these examples above there is no need for page numbers as the reference is to the work as a whole. G.2.1 (iii). Where appropriate, pagination follows year, separated by a colon:

‘According to Warhurst (1989: 140), ...’.

‘The evidence (e.g. Ratnapala 1997: 23-5) suggests that….’

G.2.1 (iv). If two authors, give both names, joined by ‘and’; if four or more, use name of first author followed by ‘et al.’:

‘ ... another viewpoint (Williams and Chin 2000: 23).’

‘According to survey evidence (McAllister et al. 1982: 131-54), ...’. G.2.1 (v). If more than one reference to same author and year, insert ‘a’, ‘b’, etc in both text and references:

‘As previously suggested (Pateman 1987a: 152), ….’ G.2.1 (vi). For institutional authorship, it is acceptable to supply a minimal form of identification for which the later reference list will provide a complete citation:

‘(ABS 1988: 12)’ [where ABS refers to the Australian Bureau of Statistics]

‘(NWTPHA 1989: 117-23)’ [where NWTPHA refers to the North-West Tasmanian Public Health Authority].

G.2.1 (vii). Incorporate within parentheses any brief phrase associated with the reference:

‘ ... have claimed this (but see Irving 2000: 19).’ G.2.1 (viii). Enclose a series of references within a single pair of parentheses, separated by semicolons:

‘ ... as many have noted (Berlin 1993; Crowder 1996; Walzer 1997).’ G.2.1 (ix). Newspaper or magazine references:

‘It has been widely reported (e.g. Sydney Morning Herald 3 July 1999) that …’

Do not insert the title of the article in the reference in your text. G.2.1 (x). Parliamentary debates. Use a convenient simplified form of reference:

‘Senator O’Brien vehemently denied the accusations (Parliamentary Debates Senate 18 March 1998: 1356).’

G.2.1 (xi). For authorless articles or studies, use the name of magazine or of sponsoring organisation, not the title of the article:

‘ ... has been stated definitively (Australian Law Review 1987) that ...’. G.2.1 (xii). For Internet or World Wide Web references. As far as possible, adapt the referencing system used for hardcopy books and articles. If there is an author and publication date, use them as in clauses (i) to (v) above. If there is no clear publication date, use the date that the Web page was last updated. If there is no clear author, use an institutional title along the lines of clause (vi) above. The full citation to the Web address normally belongs in the reference list not in the text reference itself. G.2.2 Direct Quotations Exceeding Three Lines (Block Quotations) Sometimes you will need to quote material that exceeds three lines of text. The citation conventions for this are the same as for quotes involving less than three lines. However, there are three important conventions to be observed.

♦ Indent ♦ Single-space (lines) ♦ No quotation marks

G.2.2 (i) Indent This means that you must set off the quoted material from your own text. Moving the left-hand and right-hand margins of your quotation towards the centre of your page achieves this. The distance can be from one to three centimetres. Some people choose not to indent the right-hand margin. G2.2 (ii) Single-spacing The line spacing for the text of your quotation must be single-spaced. Normally, the text of your hard copy essay will have to be double-spaced (or 1.5 line-spaced).

G2.3 (iii) No Quotation Marks You do not need to use quotation marks at the beginning or end of your block quotation. The fact that you have indented and single-spaced your material tells the reader that it is a quotation. Thus a typical quotation will look something like this:

If you can gather information and report it accurately and intelligently, you have a skill valued highly in both the classroom and the workplace. More valuable yet is the ability to work through conflicting opinions and arguments, to weigh data of different kinds and from different sources, to bring together information not usually conjoined, and to arrive at an original slant on an important problem. To do that, you need to learn how to analyze your sources not just accurately but critically (Booth, Colomb and Williams 1995: 73).

This quotation is single-spaced with indentations left (of 2.5cms) and right (of 2cms). Note that the author-date details appear before the full stop, and that the page number is included. G.2.3 Paraphrasing Paraphrasing means that you are putting another author’s words into your own words. You are essentially making the same point as the author without using the exact words used by that author. For example, take the quotation from Booth, Colomb and Williams (1995: 73) used earlier.

One possible paraphrase of this paragraph might be:

Booth, Colomb and Williams (1995: 72) argue that the ability to produce critical and accurate evaluations of your sources is the basis of sound research. They

suggest that such skills are highly valued, especially if they help shed new light on an important problem.

The paraphrase above emphasises the point about the basis for good research. Another paraphrase might emphasise the particular skills mentioned by the authors. Thus:

According to Booth, Colomb and Williams (1995: 72), research skills that place a premium on your ability to discern, accurately and critically, the relative merits of your sources’ claims and evidence, and which also enable you to see the problem from a new perspective, are highly valued both in academia and in the workplace.

The quotation conventions for paraphrasing an author’s ideas are the same as for those discussed earlier concerning direct quotations within sentences. G.2.4 Some Other Citation Conventions G.2.4 (i) Citations of an author when referring to the argument of a whole work

Imre (2010) provides a critical evaluation of Webb’s arguments about the relevance of Badiou’s philosophy for rethinking ethics in social work practice.

In this example, no page numbers are given as the reference is to the main theme of the article. G.2.4 (ii) Citations of an author who has published more than one work in the same year When an author has published more than one work in the same year you can distinguish between the various works by placing the letters ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’ and so on after the date.

Two articles by Doran (1997a, 1997b) provide insights into the construction of identities in the Straits Settlements.

In this example, no page numbers are given as the reference is to the main themes of each of the sources. G.2.4 (iii) Citations where there is more than one author in the same citation

…the boundaries between the actors (and institutions) within these networks are often fuzzy (Stoker 1998, 18; Rhodes 1997, 7, 46-53).

You use a semi-colon to separate the citations of different authors.

G.2.4 (iv) Citations from Poems and Plays The length of the quotation will determine the method of quotation. G.2.4 (iv.a) Poetry For a line or a few words of a poem, the quoted words are placed within quotation marks, thus:

Leonard Cohen’s mystical poem ‘God is Alive, Magic is Afoot’ contains the enigmatic words ‘for magic loves the hungry’.

Where two lines are quoted, the right-hand slash (‘/’) is used to indicate the break between the two lines, thus:

In the space of four lines, ‘Many weak men lied/They came to God in secret/And though they left him nourished/They would not say who healed’, Cohen identified a key problem of modern human existence – the denial of the spiritual.

When many lines of poetry are to be quoted then the conventions are the same as for any long quotation (ie exceeding three lines of your essay’s text). If the lines involve more than one verse or stanza then the separation between verses is indicated by a double line space. G.2.4 (iv.b) Plays When quoting from plays the custom is to indicate the Act or Scene and lines (if numbered) of the play. Short quotations:

When Shakespeare had Caesar utter the words ‘Et tu, Brute! Then fall, Caesar’ (Act 3, Scene 1) he captured the very essence of political betrayal.

Long quotations: Caesar recognised that a ruler should not surround himself with men who are either too ambitious or too clever:

Let me have men about me that are fat; Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o’ nights: Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much: such men are dangerous …He reads much; He is a great observer and he looks

Quite through the deeds of men: he loves no plays, As thou dost, Antony; he hears no music; Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort As if he mock’d himself and scorn’d his spirit That could be moved to smile at any thing. Such men as he be never at heart’s ease Whiles they behold a greater than themselves, And therefore are they very dangerous (Act 1, Scene 2).

G.2.4 (v) Ellipsis It is sometimes necessary to leave out words or lines in a quoted passage for reasons of relevance (to your point) or length. It is important that any omissions are made known to your reader. The way to do this is by using three full stops, known as an ellipsis.

♦ The conclusion is used to sum up the points that have been covered in the

essay… This section should not contain any new information and should refer back to the topic/question being discussed (Cheek et al 1995: 102).

In this passage a sentence of twenty-seven words has been left out. The three dots occur at the end of the sentence before the missing sentence. There is no need to add a full stop.

The following example demonstrates an ellipsis indicating missing words.

♦ This section … should refer back to the topic/question being discussed.

The most important consideration when using an ellipsis is to ensure that you do not alter the intended meaning of the original material. G.2.4 (vi) Interpolations It is sometimes necessary to add a comment to a quotation to clarify some aspect of it for the reader. This is known as interpolation. Some common occasions in which you might need to do this are:

♦ Indicating an error in the quotation ♦ Drawing attention to discriminatory phrases or expressions ♦ Commenting on the text of the quotation ♦ Ensuring grammatical consistency or fluency ♦ Indicating emphasis

In all cases of adding words or emphases to a quotation your additions should not alter, under any circumstances, the intended meaning of the cited material. G.2.4 (vi.a) Indicating an error in the quotation This might involve an error in spelling, grammatical construction or fact. You can draw the reader’s attention to such errors by using the Latin word ‘sic’ (which means ‘thus’). It is usually italicised (or underlined if italics are not available) to indicate that it is a non-English word. The word ‘sic’ is placed in square brackets immediately after the error. G.2.4 (vi.b) Drawing attention to discriminatory phrases or expressions On some occasions you might need to draw the reader’s attention to discriminatory words or expressions that appear in the quotation. For example:

Commenting on the technology of bio-power, Foucault notes that ‘it does not have to draw the line that separates the enemies of the sovereign from his [sic] obedient subjects; it effects distributions around the norm’ (Foucault 1984 cited in Jose 1998: 36).

In this example, ‘sic’ indicates that Jose regards Foucault’s (or the translator’s) use of the masculine pronoun ‘his’ as discriminatory (or at least exclusive) because it assumes that the sovereign must be a man. G.2.4 (vi.c) Commenting on the text of the quotation Anderson and Poole (1998: 107) give the following quotation to illustrate an interpolated comment.

Cobalt, an hexagonal crystal, exemplifies anistropy energy. The direction of the hexagonal axis is the direction of easy magnetism [at room temperature], while all directions in the basal plane, normal to the axis, are hard directions. (Robertson 1995: 223).

The addition of the interpolated phrase, ‘at room temperature’ presented inside square brackets, assists the reader in interpreting Robertson’s discussion. G.2.4 (vi.d) Ensuring grammatical consistency or fluency Occasionally, material in your sources might require an alteration to its grammar so that it fits that of your essay, or you might need to add some connecting words so that the quotation makes sense in the context of your essay.

‘As Merchant (1989: 190) explains,

From an active teacher and parent, she [became] a mindless, submissive body. Not only did this new image function as a sanction, but the new conceptual framework of the Scientific Revolution – mechanism – carried with it norms quite different from the norms of organicism.

This transformation from…’ (Jose 1995: 27).

Placing ‘became’ within square brackets indicates that the tense has been changed to suit the context in which the quotation is being used. G.2.4 (vi.e) Indicating emphasis There are occasions when authors emphasise or stress certain words. The person being quoted may have stressed particular words, or the person doing the quoting might wish to emphasise a particular point or idea. This is usually done by italicising the word or phrase being stressed, but occasionally bolding or underlining is used.

When the emphasis is already present in the quotation, the convention is:

• ‘One good source is worth more than a score of mediocre ones, and one accurate summary of a good source is sometimes worth more than the source itself’ (Booth, Colomb and Williams 1995: 73, emphasis in original).

When you, as the person making the quotation, add the emphasis, the convention is:

• ‘When research is distorted, though, it is usually inadvertent’ (Booth,

Colomb and Williams 1995: 73, emphasis added).

There is no need to place these additions in square brackets as they already appear within the parentheses containing the citation information. H.1 Footnotes Footnotes appear at the bottom or foot of the page. They are an addition to your text. They take up space on the page that would ordinarily have been devoted to the text of your essay.

Footnotes enable you to ♦ include additional information that explains or supplements the material

discussed in your text ♦ make cross-references to other parts of your essay ♦ provide your reader with the details of your source material

Note: do not use footnotes as a referencing system in Politics assignments. H.2.1 Appearance on the Page Footnotes are positioned at the bottom or foot of the page. They are usually separated from the body of the text by a line drawn across the bottom of the page. This line is often referred to as a ‘separator’. Each footnote is identified by its own number that appears in the text as a superscript and again at the bottom of the page where the footnote is to be found. A superscript number (usually of the form 1, 2, 3, and so forth) is raised above the base line of the text, usually by half a line in typed (or word-processed) material.1 Most computer word processing programs enable you to do this automatically. Footnotes are numbered sequentially in order of appearance, from 1 to ‘n’, throughout the text of your essay. In longer works such as theses or books, the footnotes usually start anew with each chapter. In most cases, the footnote number in the text will appear at the end of a sentence. However, it is sometimes necessary for the sake of clarity to place the number immediately after the word or phrase being referred to. In the case of direct quotations, the footnote number always appears at the end of the quotation, after the quotation marks if they are being used. Footnotes usually conform to the paragraph style adopted in your essay – if paragraphs are indented then the text of the footnote is indented by the same amount, if the paragraphs are aligned flush left then the footnotes are similarly aligned. The text of a footnote is usually single-spaced, may continue on consecutive pages, and all footnotes end with a full stop. When using footnotes to provide explanatory or additional material:

• Keep explanatory footnotes concise. Footnotes that are too lengthy might prove to be distracting for the reader.

• Ensure that explanatory footnotes are clear. There is no point in having an explanation in a footnote if the explanation is neither clear nor readable.

• DO NOT use explanatory footnotes as a means to expand your word content. Excessive use of footnotes for this purpose will be penalised and may lead to your essay being returned as a fail because you have not followed the instructions about the word length of the essay.

H.3 Endnotes Endnotes are notes that appear at the end of your text. They perform the same range of functions as footnotes. The rules for using footnotes also apply to Endnotes.