Evaluating a Reference List

     One of the characteristics of knowledge is that the newly found one should be transmitted to others to enlighten other fields of science. Scholars find a gap in their area of expertise that they would like to further explore and, consequently, they write a research paper (RP) presenting the problem to be analyzed, the methods to be used, and the literature review they will support their research with, among other steps. A thorough researcher collects a number of sources to support his/her investigation. It is utterly important that, in order to avoid plagiarism, all sources should be properly acknowledged to its corresponding author. Moreover, providing a well-written  Reference list will assist other researchers with their own work. In this paper, the way those sources were presented in the Reference list provided by the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) tutor will be analyzed as well as stating whether the American Psychological Association (APA) (2010) rules to write it were respected.

     The first element included in a Reference section is an alphabetized list of the authors´ surnames and name initials followed by the year of publication of the cited text. The author-date of publication formula is an APA (2010) requirement which facilitates retrieval of sources. When the author ´s name is unknown but an organization name is provided, that word should begin the line. The title of the work cited should be italicized and its first word should be capitalized, but not the rest of the words. No quotation marks are acceptable APA (2010) practice in any section of the reference list. Hanging indentation provides a clearer view of the cited sources, particularly if the list is extensive.

     When citing electronic sources the digital object identifier (DOI) should be provided as well as the date of retrieval. If the DOI is not available, the URL of the document can be used instead (University of Minnesota). The above mentioned rules apply for newspaper article citation but the exact day, month and year of retrieval should be included.  The phrase retrieved from should signal the web site where the source was taken from. 

In the analyzed Reference list, mistakes as regards the electronic sources citations were found which would prevent other readers from accessing the cited source. Retrieving those sources would probably be easier if cited as follows: American Psychological Association (2010). APA formatting and style guide. Retrieved from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/. Furthermore, the Reference list should begin with the centrally-aligned word References, not Works Cited (Purdue OWL).

     All in all, the purpose of including a Reference list in a RP is to give the cited authors the proper acknowledgement for their work as well as providing readers with sources to be consulted. In the Reference list under analysis, some APA (2010) rules were respected but others, which would impede the transmission of information, were not, specially electronic sources, newspaper and books citations.      

  

References

American Psychological Association (2010). APA formatting and style guide. Retrieved                                       from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

Purdue OWL. (2007). Developing an outline. Retrieved October 2007, from

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/544/01/

University of Minnesota Center for Writing. (n.d.) Quicktips: APA documentation

style: Reference list. University of Minnesota: Student Writing Support.