Writing a History essay is not just about writing a narrative, biography or chronology of an event, person or period of time: It requires the construction of an argument in answer to the question posed. During research for your essay you will find that the evidence may suggest several answers to the question. You will therefore form your own opinion through evaluation and analysis of sources and this will be the basis of the argument put forward in your answer.
It is because of the emphasis on evaluation and analysis in the writing of history, that it is essential to acknowledge sources used in your work through the use of a referencing system. In the Department of Modern History either footnotes or endnotes are necessary, using the Chicago referencing style : http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/tutorials/citing/chicago.html
Study Abroad students are expected to conform to this system unless otherwise notified.
For details, please download 2007 Referencing History Essay or click the following links.
- Why reference?
- Using sources in your essays
- When to footnote
- Preparing footnotes
- Footnotes
- Second and later references
- Bibliography
- Further information on referencing and compiling bibliographies
- It shows the person marking your work the sources that you have been accessing.
- It establishes that your argument is one formed by knowledge of a range of authors' opinions - use of this knowledge will make your argument stronger.
- It allows the reader to quickly identify and verify the sources you have used.
- Most importantly, it is how you recognise your intellectual debt to others.
If you use another person's ideas or information in your essay then you need to acknowledge this use through referencing. Such material may be included in the following ways:
- Direct Quotation
Using the author's exact words. They must be placed in quotation marks, with a footnote number at the end of the quotation.
- Paraphrase (indirect quotation)
Rewriting someone else's ideas in your own words. The footnote number is placed at the end of the sentence.
- Summary (indirect quotation)
Reference to an author's ideas or argument. Again, the footnote number is placed at the end of the sentence.
Quotations of more than forty words should be indented using single spacing, without quotation marks:
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Some sources suggest that Britain was interested in colonizing NSW for commercial purposes; none of the plans for settlement of NSW, official or unofficial, omitted to mention trade or resource considerations.
How to indent a quotation -
Highlight the words you want to indent. Go to the Format menu and select Paragraph . Choose the Alignment - Left . Under Indents and Spacing adjust the Indentation for at least the left by the required length, for example 1.5cm. Check line spacing is set to single , then click on OK. You will need to reinstate normal format settings once you have created the indentation.
Other sources that need to be referenced
- Images, figures, tables, graphs, maps and diagrams, frame enlargements from films.
- Information from lectures - the lecturer's words, notes taken during the lecture, information from slides and overheads.
What does not need to be referenced
- Common knowledge - information that is general and well known, that is, in the public domain. For example, the Second World War ended in 1945.
- Your own ideas, arguments and visual materials.
If in doubt about whether to reference or not, ask the unit convenor for advice.
- It is essential to footnote when you are making use of someone else's words, information or ideas as evidence for your argument.
- Failure to acknowledge this in your own work amounts to plagiarism, i.e., presenting another person's work as if it were your own.
- It is simply not acceptable to plagiarise, and any piece of work found to contain it will be failed automatically. For more information on Macquarie University 's policy on plagiarism go to http://www.student.mq.edu.au/plagiarism/
- Plagiarism can be avoided by using sources correctly.
- Footnotes appear at the bottom of each relevant page of your essay, whereas endnotes are located at the end of the document.
- Sometimes because of lack of space at the bottom of a page, Word will move footnotes over to the next page. Do not worry if this happens.
- Titles of books, journals, etc, can either be underlined or written in italics , but not both.
- Punctuation and the use of capitals are important in footnotes, so pay attention to this in the examples below.
How to create a footnote or endnote using Microsoft Word -
Go to the Insert menu and select Footnote (or in the 2003 version click Reference ). Choose footnote or endnote. For endnotes you will need click on the options button at the bottom of the box and choose 1,2,3, in the number format, then press OK. Make sure the numbering is continuous and applies to the whole document.
Additional material in footnotes
The Department of Modern History discourages the placing of additional material in footnotes, as this indicates lack of editing and an attempt to get round the word limit. An exception is the inclusion of a translation of material included in the main text.
Different sources require different formats when creating footnotes as the examples below will show, but generally you need to include the following information:
Name of author
Title of the source
Name of the city and publisher of the source
Date of publication
Page number(s)
Books
Simon Ryan, The Cartographic Eye: How Explorers saw Australia (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p.45.
Note that publication details are placed in brackets
Books with two authors
Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper, Forgotten Armies: The Fall of British Asia, 1941 - 1945 ( Cambridge , Massachusetts : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005), p.30.
Four or more authors
Patricia Grimshaw et al., Creating a Nation . (Ringwood: Penguin Books Australia Ltd., 1996), p.79.
Multivolume work
Winston Churchill, A History of the English Speaking Peoples , vol. 2, The New World (London: Cassell, 1956), p.124.
Translation
Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies, trans. R. Brown Grant (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1999), p. 48.
Chapter in an edited book
6 Gareth Wiliams, 'Popular Culture and the Historians' in Making History: An Introduction to the History and Practices of a Discipline , ed. Peter Lambert and Phillipp Schofield (Abingdon: Routledge, 2004), p.260.
Journal articles
M.N. Pearson, "Pilgrims, Travellers , Tourist: the Meanings of Journeys." Australian Cultural History 10 (1991): p.127.
Electronic journal articles
Georg Iggers, "Historiography from a Global Perspective," History and Theory 43, no. 1 (2004), http://www.blackwell.synergy.com/doi/abs , p.149
Book reviews
Colin Seymour-Ure, review of World War II in Cartoons, by Mark Bryant, History Today , 55, no. 9 (September 2005): p.55.
Citing a source read in another source
Paul Keating quoted in Richard Connaughton, Japan 's War on Mainland Australia 1942-1944 (London: Brassey's, 1994), p.11.
Unpublished manuscript material
John David Booth, Papers, 1984-1990, MLMSS7332, State Library of NSW, Sydney
Information from a lecture
Jane Smith, "Women Politicians of the Twentieth Century" (Lecture given at Macquarie University , NSW, March 7, 2005).
Jane Smith, "Women Politicians of the Twentieth Century" (Lecture slide, Macquarie University , NSW, March 7, 2005).
Theses and dissertations
Robert Firestone, "The Australian Garden City: a planning history 1910-1930" (Ph.D., thesis, Macquarie University, 1984), p.12.
Internet sources
References for internet sources must give the author and/or title of the material and the URL (website address) to enable the reader to find the source easily. It is optional to provide the date on which you accessed the source online. Not all website sources are reliable - for guidance on how to assess sources on the internet go to Macquarie University Library's 'Evaluating Information on the Internet' at http://www.lib.mq.wdu.au/find/evaluate.html
" Australians at War: First World War 1914-1918," Australian War Memorial, available from http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/ww1.htm
Audio-visual sources
Steven Spielberg, Schindler's List , (Universal Pictures, 1993)
Note that the inclusion of the production or distribution company is not compulsory. If you are engaged in intensive film analysis it will be of great assistance to the reader of your work if you specify the chapter or minute mark.
Newspapers and magazines
M. Lake, "The Howard History of Australia ," The Age , 20 August 2005, p.5.
For unsigned articles
"History with a Raw Edge," Sydney Morning Herald , November 10, 2003, p.12.
If you access the newspaper or magazine online you must include the URL address.
Images, figures, maps, etc
Every image, figure or map used should be provided with a caption naming the source of the illustration and title:
From a book:
Map: The Religious Complexion of Europe in the Period c . 1555-8
Source: Euan Cameron, The European Reformation. New York : Oxford University Press,1991.
For works of art include the name of the artist and title of the work and source:
Herbert Badham, The Swimming Enclosure , 1941.
Source: State Library of NSW, Sydney
Note that these sources do not need to be included in your bibliography.
After the first, full reference of a source you can then use an abbreviated version in your footnotes or endnotes:
Simon Ryan, The Cartographic Eye; How Explorers saw Australia (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p.45. Ryan, The Cartographic Eye , p.67.
OR
When referring to a source more than once you may use ibid in your footnotes when the work is the same as the one above it:
Simon Ryan, The Cartographic Eye; How Explorers saw Australia (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p.45.
Ibid ., p.67
At the end of your essay list all the books, articles and other sources in alphabetical order of author's family name. You can divide the bibliography into sections, i.e. primary and secondary sources.
Note that a bibliography is required in addition to footnotes or endnotes. Formats used for bibliographical entries are different from those used for references.
Books
Ryan, Simon. The Cartographic Eye; How Explorers saw Australia . Melbourne : Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Books with two authors
Bayly, Christopher and Tim Harper. Forgotten Armies: The Fall of British Asia , 1941 - 1945 . Cambridge , Massachusetts : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005.
Four or more authors
Grimshaw , Patricia , Marilyn Lake , Ann McGrath, and Marian Quartly. Creating a Nation . Ringwood: Penguin Books Australia Ltd., 1996.
Multivolume work
Churchill, Winston . A History of the English Speaking Peoples . Vol. 2, The New World . London : Cassell, 1956.
Translation
de Pizan, Christine. The Book of the City of Ladies . Translated by R. Brown Grant. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1999.
Note that for the bibliographical entries for chapters, journal articles and electronic journal articles you need to include the full page range of the text. For footnotes and endnotes just the page number is cited.
Chapter in an edited book
Williams, Gareth. "Popular Culture and the Historians" in Making History: An Introduction to the History and Practices of a Discipline , edited by Peter Lambert and Phillipp Schofield, Abingdon: Routledge, 2004, pp.257-268.
Journal articles
Pearson, M.N. "Pilgrims, Travellers , Tourist: the Meanings of Journeys." Australian Cultural History 10 (1991): pp.125-134.
Electronic journal articles
Iggers, Georg. "Historiography from a Global Perspective," History and Theory 43, no. 1 (2004) http://www.blackwell.synergy.com/doi/abs : pp.146-154.
Book reviews
Colin, Seymour-Ure. Review of World War II in Cartoons, by Mark Bryant, History Today , 55, no. 9 (September 2005): pp.55-56.
Source read in another source
Keating, Paul, quoted in Richard Connaughton, Japan 's War on Mainland Australia 1942-1944 . London : Brassey's, 1994.
Unpublished manuscript material
John David Booth, Papers, 1984-1990, MLMSS7332, State Library of NSW, Sydney
Information from a lecture
Smith, Jane. "Women Politicians of the Twentieth Century." Lecture given at Macquarie University , NSW, March 7, 2005.
Smith, Jane. "Women Politicians of the Twentieth Century." Lecture slide, Macquarie University , NSW, March 7, 2005.
Thesis and dissertations
Firestone, Robert. "The Australian Garden City: A Planning History 1910-1930." Ph.D., Thesis, Macquarie University , 1984.
Internet source
"Australians at War: First World War 1914-1918." Australian War Memorial. http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/ww1.htm
Audio-visual sources
Spielberg, Steven. Schindler's List . Universal Pictures, 1993.
Newspapers and magazines
Lake, Marilyn. "The Howard History of Australia ." The Age , August 20, 2005.
For unsigned articles put the name of the newspaper first:
Sydney Morning Herald , "History with a Raw Edge," November 10, 2003.
Further information on referencing and compiling bibliographies
For further information on referencing and compiling bibliographies, including sources not mentioned here, the following books will be useful:
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Jules R. Benjamin, A Student's Guide to History , 8 th edition, ( Boston : Bedford/St. Martins, 2001)
Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers (Canberra: AGPS,1994)
The Chicago Manual of Style , 15 th edition, ( Chicago : University of Chicago Press , 2003)
You can also access Citation and Style Guides through the Macquarie University Library Website at http://www.library.mq.edu.au/readyref/cites.html