Referencing question

[BertieBotts]

I'm writing an essay which compares two texts and focuses mainly on these two texts. So obviously I need to reference them, but is once in the main paragraph where I focus on it enough or do I need to do it for every single point? At the moment it looks like (Marx, 1884) (Marx, 1884) (Marx, 1884) etc etc.

I know this is a really stupid question but I'm struggling to concentrate today. Wonderful friend has taken DS out for the day since XP cancelled having him again and I NEED to get the bulk of it done today even if I don't quite finish it. It's due in on Tuesday Help! (Any focusing tips great too!)

If you aren't quoting but are instead basing what you have written on a particular text then the end of the relevant section would be ok. I hate referencing!

Hmm I'm working on a similar sounding essay (comparing and contrasting 2 texts) and I think it looks like you might be quoting a bit too much; you don't want it to look as if you are doing it to bump up your word count.

I don't know if it's ok technically to reference all the quotes at the end of the paragraph or not I'll try and look it up and get back to you.

On a similar point I want to reference a longish sentence, but the middle part of the sentence is not really relevant; is it ok to just put a few ... ?

Yes I think it's ok to cut down a quote with ellipsis. I've done it and not been marked down for it anyway.

I'm not making that many quotes (both texts are non-fiction) but every time I make a point which is in the text or taken from another source and not my own point I have to reference that too. I have rewritten it a bit now and mixed some things up and it looks better though I'm still referencing every point made - it ends up looking a bit like a wikipedia article, but that seems to be what they want, unless I'm going off on a tangent analysing things.

I am so tired now but getting into it a bit more. I've done about a quarter of the word count in the part I'd actually count as good enough to hand in and about the same amount of words again on bullet points/notes to expand on or things I can't find anywhere to fit in yet. Getting there :)

That is too much quoting. You need to just put the name into the text like - 'While Foucault argued that, this is in contrast to the position of Derrida who believed...' etc. With the date possibly only on the first use...but CHECK WITH YOUR LECTURER.

I think after you introduced the texts, you would only need to put bracketed references if you use direct quotes and then need to do (date:page),

But definitely check with the lecturer. Also, I have answered that as someone who predominantly uses Harvard, if you use another referencing style then it may be totally different, and there is always a bit of variability within styles too.

You can also use (ibid) to show you are talking about the same as before. But again, not all academics like to see that used, in the case of what you are doing it sounds like it could be useful, but again, check with your lecturer or department that it is an acceptable thing to do.

Yes, using harvard system.

I'm confused then, because I wrote another essay - not an assessed one, just a class essay, where I just wrote it and referenced bits which were specific facts rather than opinions, and got it back with loads of question marks over it saying "You need a reference here" - about every other sentence.

Mind you this was a different teacher and he also wants us to include things in the bibliography which we haven't directly referenced, and just used as background reading whereas the teacher I have for this module said specifically ONLY to include sources which we have referenced directly.

I'll check for next time, but I won't have time now before I have to hand it in. I'll just do what I can and cross my fingers!

You need to reference anything that is anyone else's idea, or even sounds like anyone else's idea. I had an essay back with similar comments about ideas needing referencing, but they were my own thoughts, so I now always put things like "I would argue", "Therefore I suggest" etc.

But with the essay you are doing I think it would be unnecessary to reference each idea in a string of ideas from the same author. It is a bit of a difficult one though, and it came up in my dissertation lit review because not much had been written in that area. I think the best thing if you can't ask is to keep refs in, it is better to reference too much I would imagine.