Consulting Journal: Writing - Citations and references

Writing: Citations and references

by David Blakey

Citations and references in your reports can make them cumbersome and difficult to read. Here is a simple way of including them.

[Monday 24 March 2003]

Some of your reports will rely upon previous publications. Your reports will probably use previous publications in three ways.

First, they can show that other organizations have been successful as a result of similar change. These publications will describe the benefits gained and the costs incurred by these other organizations. They may be publicly available in books and magazines or on the Internet. Second, they can show that the proposed change is practicable. These publications will present a practical approach to implementing the change. They may be books or your own methodologies. Third, they can show previous evidence for the proposed change within this client. These publications are most likely to be previous reports written by or for the client.

Here's an example. I am writing a report about citations in documents. There is some information about this in one of my favourite books on writing. This book suggests using the Harvard system for writing a citation, so my reference to this particular book will be

Manser, Martin, and Curtis, Stephen (2002) The Penguin Writer's Manual. London: Penguin Books

This form of citation respects copyright. It gives the author's names followed by the date of publication, then the name of the publication, in italics, and finally the place of publication and the publisher's name.

Many of the articles and books on using the Harvard system are aimed at people who are writing essays and papers for education, rather than at people who are writing reports for their clients. They usually suggest using footnotes or references in the text such as [Manser & Curtis] with the full citation for The Penguin Writer's Manual in a list of references at the end. These can reduce the readability of a consultant's report. Worse than that, they can make the report seem cumbersome and even pretentious.

I prefer to put a meaningful reference in the text, such as According to The Penguin Writer's Manual .... The book can be included in the list of references at the back of the report.

If you are quoting a previous report done for the client, then you can use a simple name for the report. The first time that you refer to the report, you can put the simple name in parenthesis, as in According to the report written by 2002 by David Blakey (‘the Blakey report’) .... From then on, you can use the simple name, and then include the full report name in the list of references. The simple name can be the Blakey report or the 2002 report or even the previous report if you refer to only one previous report.

As above, the format for a book of essays by individual authors is

Smith et al (2002) Bid management. Auckland: Bascombe Books

If you want to refer to a chapter in that book, then insert the chapter information before the book information, as in

Blakey, David (2002) Developing your bid strategy. In: Smith et al (2002) Bid management. Auckland: Bascombe Books

The word In: should be included between the chapter information and the book information.

If the Consulting Journal were a printed magazine, this article could be referred to as

Blakey, David (2003) Writing: References. Consulting Journal, 24 March 2003

This is similar to a chapter in a book. The publication name is in italics.

As it is an online magazine, the reference should be

Blakey, David (2003) Writing: References. Consulting Journal [online], 24 March 2003. Available from: http://www.consultingjournal.com [accessed ]

Insert the word [online] after the publication name. Append the URL, preceded by the words Available from:. Finally, add the date on which you accessed the page. This is because Web content and navigation can change. The URL can change between the time that you write the report and the time that you present it to your client.It is worthwhile for you to print copies of Web pages that you use in your research. You should not reproduce them in your report, for copyright reasons.

If you are interested in the Harvard system, try searching the Web for the keywords ‘harvard system references’. You should know that the Harvard system is intended primarily for academic theses. Some countries have published standards for citing references, such as

British Standards Institution (1989) BS Recommendations for references to published materials. BS 1629: 1989. London: BSI.

As a final example, here is a sample paragraph.

I wrote in the Consulting Journal [CJ] that I recommend The Penguin Writer's Manual [Manser & Curtis]. My article also pointed out the existence of a BSI recommendation on citing references [BSI].

The list of references at the end of the report could then be

[BSI] British Standards Institution (1989) BS Recommendations for references to published materials. BS 1629: 1989. London: BSI.
[CJ] Blakey, David (2003) Writing: References. Consulting Journal [online], 24 March 2003. Available from: http://www.consultingjournal.com [accessed 24 March 2003]
[Manser & Curtis] Manser, Martin, and Curtis, Stephen (2002) The Penguin Writer's Manual. London: Penguin Books.

It is usual to put references in the text in brackets, [], which are sometimes called ‘square brackets’.

The secret to handling references is to avoid clutter in your main document. The clutter can go at the end, in the list of references. The main document should continue to flow and continue to engage your client's attention.

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[BSI]	British Standards Institution (1989) BS Recommendations for references to published materials. BS 1629: 1989. London: BSI.
[CJ]	Blakey, David (2003) Writing: References. Consulting Journal [online], 24 March 2003. Available from: http://www.consultingjournal.com [accessed 24 March 2003]
[Manser & Curtis]	Manser, Martin, and Curtis, Stephen (2002) The Penguin Writer's Manual. London: Penguin Books.