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CDU Harvard Referencing: In-text Citation Checklist

A guide to help you better understand CDU Harvard Referencing

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In-text citation checklist

1 Have you checked if your lecturer has any special referencing requirements, for example, page numbers for all citations or no hyperlinks?
If your lecturer states specific requirements for referencing, these override CDU Harvard style. Check in your Learnline unit information or with your lecturer directly.
2 Have you cited all resources used?
Whenever you use information from a resource in your text, an in-text citation is needed to show your reader where you found the information.
3 Have you used an appropriate level of citation?

Consider the number of resources you have used for the assignment (always follow your lecturer’s guidelines). When using information from a source, provide an in-text citation.

4 Have you correctly used parenthetical and narrative citations?

Parenthetical citation: The author and the date, appear in parentheses (brackets) separated by a comma. A parenthetical citation can appear within or at the end of a sentence.
Example: Workplace health is a significant social problem (Mitchell & Hyde 2024).

Narrative citation: The author is incorporated into the text as part of the sentence and the date appears in brackets immediately after the author’s name.
Example: Mitchell and Hyde (2024) state workplace health is a significant social problem.

5 Quotes of fewer than 40 words: Are your quotes in double quotation marks, and have you included the page or paragraph number in the in-text citation?

When words are not your own (quotes), you must clearly signal this in the text with quotation marks, or you will be plagiarising.

Example: “…can compensate as needed” (Smith 2019, p. 13).

6 Quotes of more than 40 words: Is this quote necessary, or could you summarise/paraphrase the text? Have you followed the rules for formatting a quote of 40 words or more?

Treat a quote of 40 words or more as a block quote. Omit quotation marks and start the quote on a new line. Indent the whole block. Add a citation after the final punctuation.

See the CDU Harvard Guide for more information: https://libguides.cdu.edu.au/CDUHarvard/in-textcitations

7 Have you changed a quote to make it fit grammatically or because it contains irrelevant or unnecessary information? Have you followed the APA guidelines for changing a quote?

When leaving out information in a quote, insert an ellipsis (three dots). When adding or slightly changing words within a quote for reasons of grammar or clarity, indicate the change with square brackets.
Example: “This helps develop values like… [the] availability of products (Patra & Datta 2024 2007, p. 16).

8 Do you need to use a specific part/section of a resource with no page number?

If you don’t have a page number, you can use a section number, paragraph number, or the identifier/title the resource uses in its place.
For example: (ACARA n.d., ACELA1443), (eSafety Commissioner 2024, para. 2), (NMBA 2016, Standard 3.1, p. 4)

9 Have you followed the ‘et al.’ rule when citing 3 or more authors?

When citing a resource with three or more authors, only show the first named author, followed by et al. (et al. means ‘and others’).

Example: (Smith et al. 2019) / According to Smith et al. (2019) families are …

10 If you have two in-text citations in one parenthesis, are they in alphabetical order and separated by a semi colon?
Example: (Miller 2018; Smith 2015)
11 Have you used information that was already cited from another resource (secondary citation)? Have you checked if you could access the original resource?

If you can’t access the original source to read, cite the work as a secondary citation.

For example: You read Lister’s article, which refers to Miller’s ideas. If you can’t find Miller’s work, cite the ideas like this: … of social justice (Miller 1984, as cited in Lister 2007) OR Miller’s (1984) simple definition of social justice (as cited in Lister 2007) …

You include the Lister article in your reference list:
Lister, R 2007, ‘Social justice: Meanings and politics’, Benefits, 15(2):113–125.

See the video Secondary citations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib0rsRdgGHI

12 Have you explained all your abbreviations before using them?

It is possible to use an abbreviated version of an organisational author in the text or a citation, but you must use it in full the first time.
In-text example: (World Health Organization [WHO] 2014).

Your reference list should always include the author’s full name, no abbreviation.

 

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