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PBI 1092
ACADEMIC ENGLISH 2
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LEARNING UNIT 1
ESSENTIAL ACADEMIC SKILLS

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Learning Unit 1a: Types of
References

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 Learning Objectives

By the end of this unit, you should be able to:

• explain why it is important to cite authority in academic
writing
• differentiate between journals, books, edited books and
other materials
• differentiate between first name and family/surname
• find relevant information for writing references for journals
and books
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PART 1: Citing Authority

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 Citing Authority

Requires proof and evidences References – validate your work

Academic
Writing
Credible and reliable sources: APA style [7th edition]
books, journals, reports,
(www.apastyle.org)
academic sources

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 Example
Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) consider Social Media (SM) as “a group of Internet-based
applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and
allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content” (p. 61). SM has altered the
way people interact with each other. By exploiting SM functionalities, entrepreneurs have
been using it in managing their business activities for example marketing (Alalwan et al.,
2017; Misirlis & Vlachopoulou, 2018). As reported by Sukhia (2018), over 50 million
businesses use Facebook business pages including two million who use it for direct
advertising. A similar trend can be observed in other dominant social media platforms
such as Instagram, where half of users follow a business page (Pickard-Whitehead, 2018).
SM’s openness and connectivity overcome the inability or difficulty entrepreneurs
experience in identifying and reaching out for expert advice (Kuhn et al., 2016; Nylander
& Rudström, 2011). This is particularly crucial in the early stages of entrepreneurship
where there is a need for information and support on setting up and running a business
which is essential to its survival.
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PART 2: Searching Relevant
References

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 TITLE gives us an idea of the contents and
the audience.

Searching TABLE OF CONTENTS lists the chapters and

the content of a book, or the articles in a
journal.

RELEVANT SUBJECT INDEX (towards the end of a

References book/publication) allows you to do a quick

search of topics dealt with in a book.

ONLINE TOOLS

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Predict the likely audience for each of these books

Titles Likely Audience

Contemporary music Trainee teachers

An introduction to anthropology Botanists

A first course in Economics Environmental groups

Language teaching methodology Musicians

Managing sustainable ecosystem Business students

The flora of Borneo Social science students

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The Table of Contents (TOC) lists the chapters and the content of a book, or the articles in a
journal.

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The Subject Index (towards the end of a book/publication) allows you to do a quick search of topics dealt with in a book. Searching through the
keywords and see their corresponding pages would be a good help especially when the book is thick. If you see only 1 page for a
subject/keyword, you would probably not able to find enough information.

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Online Tools With the development of the World Wide Web, it is even easier to search relevant sources
using specific keywords. Here are some useful search engines and databases for you to explore.

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PART 3: Comparing Different Types
of Sources

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Comparing Different Types of Sources

Edited
Books Journals
books

Web Other
documents materials
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Books

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 How to cite a book?
_________________, _____________. ( ). _____________________________________ .
(surname/lastname) (initial of first name) (year of publication) (title of book - in italics)
___________________________ (Publisher).

Stoneman, R. (2008). Alexander the Great: A life in legend. Yale University Press.

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 Parts of a Book and Their Information
Parts of a book Information
Cover of a book Title, author(s), publisher
Title page Title, author(s), publisher
Imprint page The page immediately before or after the title page which contains publishing details:
 
1. Publisher (e.g. Cambridge) vs printer (Biddles Sdn Bhd)
 
2. Year of publication – reprints vs edition
1. If reprints are made of a book, the contents are the same. Cite the year for the original version.
E.g. published in 2008, reprinted in 2010, the original year (2008) should be used in citation.
2. If a book has several editions, cite the year of the latest edition because the contents of the book
have been changed. E.g. Second edition 1993
 
3. ISBN (International Standard Book Number)
The number is unique for that title. This is useful for librarians.
 
4. Copyright ©
The copyright usually belongs to either the publisher or the author(s).

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Journals

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Journals contain articles on more specialised subject matter and are
commonly read for the latest development in scholarly research. One
volume of a journal may contain five to 10 articles written by different
researchers.
The articles are read by other researchers who are doing similar
research.
A journal is a regular publication which may be published once a year
or several times a year (in the form of Volumes).
A volume can be a set for a period of several months such as January to
June, and if there are a lot of articles within this period, some
publishers will split them into Issues or also known as Number.

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 What’s the difference between Volume and
Issue/Number?
• As an example, from January to June (Volume 1) there can be several issues (e.g. Issue 1 for January to March, and
Issue 2 for April to June). Thus, when you do the referencing for the journal, you have to pay attention to this
information (e.g. an article can be published in Volume 1, Number 1).
• Researchers send their articles to the journal and these are sent for review or evaluation by experts in the field. The
article may be rejected or accepted. The researchers are usually asked to make some revisions before the article is
finally published in the journal.
• Journal articles can be published either in printed (compiled like a book) or electronic form (downloadable
documents). With the increasing cost of printing, more and more journals are published electronically. To get a list of
established journals you may refer to:
 Thomson-Reuters Master Journal List for Science
•http://ip-science.thomsonreuters.com/cgi-bin/jrnlst/jlresults.cgi?PC=J
 Thomson-Reuters Master Journal List for Social Science
•http://ip-science.thomsonreuters.com/cgi-bin/jrnlst/jlresults.cgi?PC=K

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 How to cite a journal?
________, _____________________. ( )
(surname) (initial of the first name) (year of publication)
_______________. _____________________,
(title of the journal) (name of journal – in italics)
______________________( ),___________.
(volume number – in italics) (issue number) (page number)

Li, W.L.(2000). Free vibrations of beams wit Journal of Sound and

Vibration, 237h general boundary conditions. (4), 709-725.
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 Web Documents & Other Materials
• Apart from books and journals, you can also obtain information from other periodicals (e.g. magazine,
newspapers, and newsletter), web pages or e-books. However, in academic writing, books and journals are
considered more reliable as references. Try to refer to them often.

• High dependency on unreliable websites such as Wikipedia, blogs, social media postings should be
avoided. Many scholars are against these sources as references.

• In general, if you downloaded documents from online web sites but could not obtain necessary information
required to fit it as a journal article or a book, then you should use the referencing style for web documents as
shown in the following example:

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How to cite web document?

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Newspapers and opinionated magazines should be used with great care. Make sure you are clear whether ideas
presented are proven facts and not just opinions, feelings and conjectures.

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IMPORTANT In academic writing, focus on facts and evidence-supported opinions
rather than sweeping statements that you found in any resources especially online. Always ensure the
information is reliable before using it.

The next unit is about Citation, Referencing

& Citation Focus. You MUST set aside
more time to complete it before coming to
the next class. The unit is very important for
this whole course as it will be assessed in
your assignments.

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