Abdelmalek Essaadi University

ENSA College – Al Hoceima

Academic Writing
Stream: GC1/S2 2021/2022
Prof. E. BOUAZZA
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Citation Styles for Academic Writing

Introduction:
Generally, when students are writing their research papers (graduation reports, “PFE”
reports, Master theses, doctoral dissertations...) they take some quotations from authors by
which they support their arguments. But some students, unfortunately, do not mention, or do
not cite, the source from which these quotes are taken.
To acknowledge the source, students should use in-text citations or footnotes and a list
of references at the end of the report. Thus, to avoid plagiarism, it is important to document
every idea, statistic, quote or paraphrase that you use from somewhere else.
A citation style is a way of formatting and presenting citations and references. It is the
way by which you acknowledge or cite the source from which the quotes are taken. Different
disciplines have developed different methods for citation styles. Your supervisor may specify
which style you will follow in your end of studies report.
You cite the source from which you quote in different ways and places:
 In-text citations.
 Footnotes.
 List of references (References, Bibliography, Works Cited…).
In-text citation style: Definition
In-text citations are brief references in the text that direct readers to the reference
entry at the end of the paper. You include them every time you quote or paraphrase someone
else’s ideas or words.
There is no one specific in-text citation style in engineering. In-text citations for
common engineering documents are formatted in the two most popular styles:
 Square bracketed number citation style. e.g. [1]
 Author-date citation style. E.g. (Smith, 2017).
If your supervisor doesn't have a preference for a style, one of these is a good choice. Be
consistent with whatever style you choose.
The citation numbered in square brackets
In this citation style, you refer to the source with a number in square brackets, e.g. [1],
that will then correspond to the full citation in the reference list.
Examples:
"The theory was first put forward in 1987" [1]. (Direct quote)
A similar study was carried out in 2015 [1]. (Indirect quote)

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Place bracketed citations within the line of text, before any punctuation, with a space before
the quote.
The first source you cite in your text receives the number 1, the second number 2, and so on.
Once you have referred to a source and given it a number, continue to use that number as you
cite that same source throughout the paper.
When citing multiple sources at once, the preferred method is to list each number separately,
in its own brackets, using a comma or dash between numbers, as such: [1], [3], [5] or [1] - [5].
Examples:
"This theory was first put forward in 1987 [1]."
Several recent studies [3], [4], [15], [16] have suggested that....

The reference list for bracketed numbers citations

The reference list appears at the end of your paper and provides the full citations for
all the bracketed number citations you have used. Title your list as “References” either
cantered or aligned left at the top of the page.
List all references numerically not alphabetically in the order they've been cited within
the paper, and include the bracketed number at the beginning of each reference. Create a
hanging indent for each reference with the bracketed numbers flush with the left side of the
page. (A Hanging indent, is a style of a paragraph in which the first line is placed at the
margin, and then indenting (=leaving a space) each subsequent line of the paragraph.
For example:
[1] G. O. Young, "Synthetic structure of industrial plastics," in Plastics, 2nd ed., vol. 3, J.
Peters, Ed. New York:McGraw-Hill, 1964, pp. 15-64.
[2] J. O. Williams, “Narrow-band analyzer,” Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. Elect. Eng.,
Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA, 1993.

The hanging indent highlights the numerical sequence of your references. The author's first
name is listed as first initial + last name.
Examples of references for bracketed number citations

References list entries should be ordered in this way:

 Initials and last name of the author,
 Title of the book, report or the name of the periodical (in italics),

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  Title of the article between quotes, and inclusive page numbers,
 Place and house of publication,
 Date of publication,
 The link.
The author-date citation
The author-date citations are citations used within the body of the text to show the
reader where the original idea came from and to give credit to the original author.
The author-date citations consist of the author’s last name and the year of publication put
between parentheses, e.g. (Smith, 2020).
 Use one every time you quote or paraphrase a source.
 It’s also necessary to include the page number(s) of the quote if you’re citing a direct
quote or a specific part of a source for example: (Smith, 2020, p. 170).
One author:
Examples:
 An earlier study revealed that … (Smith, 2017). (Parenthetical citation)
 Smith (2017) shows how research into X was mainly concerned with … (Narrative
citation)
 Tuan (1979) suggests that the effect of fairy tales is muted by “the affectionate
environment in which the stories are usually told” (p. 20). (Narrative citation)
If you use more than one reference written by the same author in the same year, the references
are arranged alphabetically by title (ignoring "A", “An” or "The"). Lower case letters (a, b, c)
are added immediately after the year within parentheses.
Example:
Turnbull, C. M. (1965a). The Mbuti Pygmies of the Congo. In J. L. Gibbs, Jr. (Ed.), Peoples
of Africa (pp. 281–317). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Turnbull, C. M. (1965b). Wayward servants: The two worlds of the African Pygmies. Garden
City, NY: Natural History Press
If you cite several sources in one place, list them in alphabetical order by authors’ last names,
and separate them with a semicolon.
Example: A recent study unveils that… (Tuan, 1979; Turnbull, 1965a).
Two authors
When there are two authors (of the same source), separate their last names with an ampersand
(&), or with the word ‘and’ when they appear in the text.
Example:
Research shows that there is a great need for … (Reynolds & Thomas, 2014).
Reynolds and Thomas (2014) write that there is a great need for …
3-5 authors
When there are three four or five authors (of the same source), separate their last names
using commas. The last two authors’ last names should be separated by both a comma and an
ampersand.
Example:
Recent research suggests that there is … (McGuire, Morrison, Reynolds, & Thomas, 2014).
McGuire, Morrison, Reynolds, and Thomas (2014) argue that …
If you cite the same source again, to save space, you shorten the citation. Instead of including
all the authors’ names, include only the first author, followed by “et al.” (meaning “and
others”).
Example:
In this research, many participants made use of … (McGuire et al., 2014).
McGuire et al. (2014) noticed that …

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6 or more authors
If a source has six or more authors, use the shortened version from the first citation.
Example:
Lunott et al. (2015) discuss the …
No Authors:
If the author is unknown, the first few words of the reference should be used. This is usually
the title of the source. If this is the title of a book, periodical, brochure or report, it should be
italicized.
Example: (A guide to citation, 2017).
If this is the title of an article, chapter or web page, it should be in quotation marks.
Example: (“APA Citation”, 2017).
Organization as author
When a source does not list an individual author, it can often be attributed to an organization
instead.
Example:
According to a new research … (Microsoft, 2014).
According to a new research … (Ministry of Education, 2014).
Citing multiple sources in one citation
Sometimes, it’s necessary to cite multiple sources in one sentence. If these sources are by the
same author, the surname is stated once followed by the dates in a chronological order.
For example:
Mitchell (2007, 2013, 2017)
If these sources are by multiple authors, then the references are ordered alphabetically by the
first author separated by a semicolon as follows:
For example:
(Mitchell & Smith 2017; Thomson, Coyne, & Davis, 2015).
Citing a Secondary Source:
In this situation, the original author and date should be stated first followed by ‘as cited in’
followed by the author and date of the secondary source.
For example:
Lorde (1980) as cited in Mitchell (2017) = parenthetical citation
Or, (Lorde, 1980, as cited in Mitchell, 2017) = narrative citation

The reference list for the author-date citation style

In the reference list, you give the full reference which appears at the end of your work in
alphabetical order.
For example:
Tuan, Y. (1979). Landscapes of fear. New York: Pantheon.
Turnbull, C. M. (1965a). “The Mbuti Pygmies of the Congo”.In J. L. Gibbs, Jr. (Ed.), Peoples
of Africa (pp. 281–317). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Turnbull, C. M. (1965b). Wayward servants: The two worlds of the African Pygmies. Garden
City, NY: Natural History Press.
A book by one author
Light, R. J. (2001). Making the most of college: Students speak their minds. New York:
Random House.
Two or more books by the same author
Florida, R. (2002). The rise of the creative class: And how it’s transforming work, leisure,
community and everyday life. New York: Basic Books.
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Florida, R. (2005). The flight of the creative class: The new global competition for talent.
New York: HarperCollins.
A book written by two or three authors
Peel, R., Patterson, A., & Gerlach, J. (2000). Questions of English: Ethics, aesthetics, rhetoric
and the formation of the subject in England, Australia and the United States. London:
Routledge.
An article from a daily newspaper
Glanz, J. (2005, February 13). “Iraqi insurgents step up attacks after election”. New York
Times, p. 12.
An article from a weekly or biweekly Magazine
Mayer, J. (2005, February 14–21). “Outsourcing torture”. The New Yorker, 80, 106–123.
Internet source: Website citations
Worland, J. (2015, July 27). “U.S. flood risk could be worse than we thought”. Retrieved
from http://time.com/3973256/flooding-risk-coastal-cities
A chapter in an edited book
Example:
Troy, B.N. (2015). “APA citation rules”. In S.T, Williams (Ed.). A guide to citation
rules (2nd ed., pp. 50-95). New York, NY: Publishers.
In this example, B.N. Troy is the author of the chapter and S.T. Williams is the editor of the book.
E-Book
Mitchell, J.A., Thomson, M., & Coyne, R.P. (2017). A guide to citation. Retrieved from
https://www.mendeley.com/reference-management/reference-manager
E-Book chapter
Troy, B.N. (2015). “APA citation rules”. In S.T, Williams (Ed.). A guide to citation
rules (2nd ed., pp. 50-95). Retrieved from https://www.mendeley.com/reference-
management/reference-manager
The author-date citation reference list entries should be ordered in this way:
 Last names and initials of all authors;
 Date of publication,
 Title of the book, report or the name of the periodical (in italics);
 Title of the article between quotes, and inclusive page numbers,
 Place and house of publication, and the link.
References should be included at the end of the report. References must be alphabetically
ordered. All listed references must be referred to in the text by their corresponding last names.

The footnotes
At the end of the quote, you place a superscript number within the body of text. This number
appears at the buttom of the page next to which appears the citations or information about the
topic at hand.
In footnotes, you should start with:
 The name of the author (first name, last name) (in footnotes first name of the author
comes first);
 The title of the article between quotes, the title of the book in italics;
 The place and house of publication;
 The date of publication;
 And most importantly the page number (if available);
 The link if the source is electronic.
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Guidelines to academic writing
 When you paraphrase, try to write in your own style.
 Cite the source from which you support your arguments using one of the methods of
citation styles.
 Use Times New Roman. Front size: 12. Space: 1.5 as rectified.
 Avoid using: etc… (The reader needs to know what you’re talking about)
 Avoid using long sentences. You can divide them into shorter ones.
 Separate the chapter from the general introduction using a new page.
 Capitalize the first letters of the titles. (Chapters’ titles...)
 Avoid using contractions: (e.g. instead of “don’t” write “do not”, instead of “can’t”
write “cannot” ….)
 Number the pages.
The pagination:
In your “PFE” report, numbering your pages should start from the general introduction.
The pages that come before the introduction like:
 The dedication,
 The acknowledgments,
 The abstract,
 The list of figures,
 Contents
are paginated using Roman numerals: (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII…)
Please, note that in the reference list:
 Initials and last name of the author (for the square bracketed number citation style),
 Last name of the author and the initials of his first name (for the author-date citation
style),
 The title of the book, periodical or report is written in italics;
 The title of the article is written between quotes;
 Between the name of the author and the title (of the book, the article…) use a full stop
not a comma;
 Between the place of publication and the house of publication use colon (:)
 Mention the link if the source (book, article…) is electronic.