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This video is about how to reference books in your assignment using the APA referencing style, which is the most commonly used style here at Unitec.
We will cover print books with one authour, two authours, or more than two authours.
If you need further information about referencing, see our online guide or our video series.
Acknowledging the sources you use in an assignment is a required practice for academic writing. It can seem picky and is certainly time-consuming, but you can lose marks if you don't get it right.
Even the punctuation is important, so please check our online guide to make sure you have it correct.
While writing your assignment, you'll cite the source within your text like this:
There are several ways that you can cite depending on whether you directly quote your source or if you are paraphrasing what the source says.
For more details, please visit our online guide where we explain this in much greater depth. But basically, all your citations will contain these elements:
Referencing a printed book in your assignment using the APA format follows a standard pattern. To put the book in your reference list at the end of the assignment you wil need the following elements:
Authour's surname, initials, year, title, place of publication and publisher.
Here is a useful area to look for:
It's usually in the front of the book, near the title page. Although some older books do have it at the back. Alternatively, you could look up the book on our catalogue, and find all the same information in the record.
If you happen to photocopy part of a book, it's a good idea to photocopy this page, or at least write down the information on your copy so that you will be able to complete your references properly.
Now this book has two authours. Citing a book with two authours is simple, you just put in both authour's names like this:
In the reference list, you just add in the other authour like this. Everything else in the reference stays just the same as for a book with only one authour.
Sometimes you have to deal with a book that has more than two authours. This one has three authours.
Citing these books is a bit trickier, but you can do it!
The first time you cite this book, you have to put all the authours in.
The next time, you just need to put the first authour's name and the put "et al," which is the latin term meaning "and others."
On occasions you come across a book with more than seven authours. For example, this one.
To cite this book, you use the "et al" term immediately, like this:
In the reference list, you only have to put the first six authours, then you write an ellipsis - that means three dots.
...and then the last authour. Here is one I created earlier:
Citing and referencing books is tricky and takes time, we hope this video helps you to get it right.
In the next video, we will see how to deal with corporate authours and edited books. For more information and help, see our online guide and the rest of our video series.