Ten Tips for Tweaking Your Reference List

Sarah Prince, Ph.D.Writing Consultant

When good intentions fall short…

Timeline Ideal Reality

5 days before paper is due Write first draft of paper, including reference list.

Work late; unable to begin writing paper

3 days before paper is due Revise first draft of paper, and send to WC for review

Think about paper briefly but have to attend child’s school function instead of writing.

1 day before paper is due Incorporate WC feedback and make sure reference list meets APA guidelines.

Write down some initial notes for paper, but opt to spend time with family instead of

writing.

Due Date Make last revisions, submit paper to instructor

Write first (and final) draft of paper, quickly create

reference list, and manage to turn in paper just before the

midnight deadline.

Do not submit before checking your reference list!

• Students frequently lose points on easy-to-fix reference list errors.

• As a Writing Center tutor, I have compiled the ten most common reference list errors we see in the Writing Center.

• Take 10-15 minutes to make sure your reference list steers clear of these common mistakes.

Insert a page break

• You should always insert a formal page break between the body of your text and your reference list.

• This formal break will ensure that no matter what changes you make to your paper, the reference list will always appear at the beginning of its own new page.

• http://writingcenter.waldenu.edu/440.htm

Format your reference title correctly• After you have inserted a

formal page break before the word “References” (“Reference” if you have only used one outside source) you will want to make sure it is formatted correctly

• The title “References” should be centered and be in plain text. No punctuation should follow the title.

References

Alexander, G., & Bonaparte, N. (2008). My way or the highway that I

built. Ancient Dictators, 25(7), 14-31.

doi:10.8220/CTCE.52.1.23-91

Babar, E. (2007). The art of being a French elephant. Adventurous

Cartoon Animals, 19, 4319-4392. Retrieved from

http://www.elephants104.ace.org

Remove Hyperlinks• Make sure to remove all

hyperlinks from your reference list by right clicking on the link and selecting “Remove Hyperlink”.

• After doing so, your link should no longer be bright blue or underlined. It should be in plain text (like the rest of your reference list).

Format your references using a hanging indent

• Instead of trying to manually create a hanging indent for each reference, you want MS Word to do the work for you!

• If you change your formatting settings, which is really quick and easy, your citations will remain perfectly formatted (despite any other changes you might make to your reference list).

• http://www.screencast.com/t/8fzBK2sxs

Capitalize titles correctly

• Per APA guidelines, the title’s first word, its first word following a colon (or the first word of a subtitle), and its proper nouns are the only words that should be capitalized.

Example: Elizabeth Cady Stanton: The woman, the hero, the legend

Because Elizabeth Cady

Stanton is a proper noun, it is capitalized here.

Because “The” is the first word

of a subtitle, which is marked with a colon, it is capitalized here.

Format titles correctlyAlthough APA style does not have different rules for the capitalization of titles in books, websites, and journals, it

does have different rules for their formatting.• Shorter works, such as journal article titles and webpage

titles are written in plain text.Example: Hepatitis A: Prevention and treatment

• Longer works, such as books and entire journals are italicized. Additionally, all important words in journal titles are capitalized.Journal Example: Journal of Modern Medicine

Book Example: Unbearable weight: Feminism, Western culture, and the body

Find the DOI or URL• Per 6th edition APA, you will want to include a DOI

(instead of database retrieval information) when citing journal articles found online– Example: doi:12.2847/CEDG.39.2.51-71

• If no DOI can be found, you should then use the URL of the journal’s homepage (again—not database retrieval information).– Example: www.journalofscience.com

• For help finding the DOI, make sure to use the Writing Center’s DOI flowchart.

Include publication information for print sources

• If you are citing a book print source, you will want to include the city of publication and state postal code (even if you use a well known city like New York or San Francisco)

• In addition to the city and state of publication, you should also include the name of the publisher

Example: Atlanta, GA: Peach Press

Use correct punctuation• When in a rush, it is easy to look over missing or misplaced periods and commas

in your reference list.

Jacobson, N. S., & Truax, P. (1991). Clinical significance: A statistical approach to defining change in psychotherapy research. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 59(2), 12–19. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.59.1.12

• The blue periods show how punctuation comes after the author names, date (which goes inside parentheses), title, and source.

• The red commas demonstrate that commas come between the author’s last name and first initial(s), the journal title and the volume number, and the issue number and the page numbers.

• Note that you should not add punctuation marks after DOIs or URLs in reference list entries. These can function as live links to lead readers directly to article information; thus the precise alphanumeric string (without added punctuation) is needed.

• For trickier sources, check out: http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/07/punctuating-the-reference-list-entry.html

Double space your reference list

• Your reference list should be double spaced, but you should not include extra spaces between references.

• Just like hanging indents, formatting MS word to do the double spacing for you will save time: http://writingcenter.waldenu.edu/432.htm

• For a visual example of how your reference list will look once double spaced, check out our template: http://writingcenter.waldenu.edu/57.htm

In review… 1. Insert a page break 2. Format your reference title 3. Remove hyperlinks 4. Format a hanging indent 5. Capitalize titles correctly 6. Format titles correctly 7. Find the DOI/URL 8. Include publication information 9.Use correct punctuation 10. Double space your reference list

Other useful resources:

Writing Center Reference List Help: http://writingcenter.waldenu.edu/353.htm

APA style blog: http://blog.apastyle.org/

writingsupport@waldenu.edu

Questions