Abstract

a summary of the contents of a document

Ampersand

'&' which is the symbol for 'and'

Author-date system

a system of acknowledging the sources used for a document. The author's last name and date of publication appear in brackets in the text and full details of the sources are provided at the end of the assignment.

Bibliography

a list of citations to other works and/or parts of works used in the preparation of the assignment. Works listed in a bibliography may or may not have been referred to or quoted from in the assignment.

Bulletin boards

electronic message boards that display information, messages and news

Citation

a formal description of a work or source of information including author, title and publishing details

Edition

a particular version of a document. Subsequent editions usually entail major revision or change to the contents.

Endnotes

footnotes that appear not at the bottom of the page but at the end of a chapter or at the end of an assignment (see Footnotes)

Footnotes

consecutive numbers or symbols in the text refer to notes at the foot of the page where full details of the information source referred to are given

Ftp

stands for file transfer protocol. This allows computer files to be transferred from one machine to another. Public access files are often obtained using ftp.

Harvard system

another term for the Author-date system (see Author-date system)

Impression

subsequent reprinting of a document with a few or minor changes

Indenting

leaving space between the left-hand margin of the page and the beginning of the text

Italics

a typeface where the letters lean to the right like these. Italics are often used to emphasise words and phrases or otherwise distinguish one part of the text from another.

Journals

another word for serials, magazines or periodicals

Justify

to space the letters so that all lines end evenly or flush at the right-hand edge

Legend

explanatory labels and title information on illustrations, graphs, tables, figures and maps

List of references

appears at the end of the assignment and lists all the works to which you have referred in the body of the assignment

Lower case

small letters - like these

Manuscript

an original document

Margins

the spaces left between the edges of the page and the beginning of the text

Periodicals

another word for serials, magazines or journals

Plagiarism

using someone else's work, ideas or words as if they were your own

Primary text

the original source document, the authoritative document such as the text of a play or the proof of a theorem

Quotation marks

punctuation marks like these ' ...' or these "... " which enclose text or speech being directly quoted word for word from someone else's work

References

the sources of information used in the preparation of the text and referred to or quoted from in the text

Reprint

to print a document again with few or minor changes

Secondary source

material entitled to consideration in the second instance, in that it is derived from, based on, or dependent on a primary source. Critical commentaries or interpretations of the text of a play or the proof of a theorem are secondary sources.

Serials

publications which continue to be published in successive parts (for example, journals, yearbooks) usually under the same title, for an indefinite period of time

Source

the item that supplied the information referred to and which is the basis of the authority for that information

Style manuals

written sets of rules for the writing, appearance and layout of written work

Superscript

text which is raised slightly above the level of the surrounding text, which makes it look ^{like this}.

Thesaurus

a book of words grouped according to their meanings.

Traditional note system

a system of acknowledging the sources used for a document. Numbers appear in the text next to the cited passages and footnotes are provided elsewhere to give full details of the work.

Unjustified

text where the lines end unevenly leaving a ragged right-hand edge.

Upper case

capital letters LIKE THESE.

Vancouver

Citing system used in medical sciences - also called the Number - Reference list system

c. or ca.

means circa or about. Often used with approximate dates (c.1869) or numbers (ca. 5000 people)

cf.

confer or compare

ch. or chap.

chapter

ed.

edition

ed. or eds.

editor or editors

e.g.

for example

esp.

especially

et al.

means and others. Often used to indicate multiple authors (Jones et al.)

etc.

means et cetera, or and so forth

f. or ff.

and the following page(s). f. for one page, ff. for more than one

fig. or figs.

figure or figures

i.e.

means that is

ms. or mss.

manuscript or manuscripts

NB.

means note well

n.d.

no date. Used when a document has no date of publication on it and one cannot be determined

n.s.

new series

p. or pp.

page or pages

rev.

revised, revised by, revision, review, reviewed by

sic

means thus. Used to indicate that despite appearances, the quoted text is exact and that spelling errors or other errors were in the original text. Usually appears in square brackets like this [sic]

trans.

translated by, translation

viz.

means namely as in "one of the Brontes, viz. Emily..."

v. or vv.

verse or verses

vol. or vols.

volume or volumes