Sunday, 27 April 2008

How to reference in exams

thomashawk @ Flickr

I mention this now because some of you will be starting to learn references some time soon.

The APA says that with three to five authors the first reference to a paper includes all authors. Subsequent citations in the same essay may refer to the paper by the principal author plus "et al." For six authors the correct format is (Principal author et al., Year).

Obviously you do this for coursework essays, but when it comes to exams I think it is fine - and all the lecturers I have asked agree - to relax this a bit. Please do check with the individual lecturers, but this is how I did it:
  • 1-3 authors all named first then "et al" after that
  • 3+ authors, do "et al"
Again, be sure to check this is acceptable, but it's just a nice little way of cutting down the memory load - some of those psychologists have crazy names. The fewer you need to remember the better.

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