Harvard and mla referencing styles

Introduction:
Referencing is that inescapable headache that haunts
every assignment like a plague. And even though you
may hate doing it, you have no option but to go
through the painful process of listing every single
resource you have used to make your assignment
what it is. What makes this horrific nightmare even
worse is that you are almost always unable to
differentiate one citation style from the other,
consequently mixing them up and making blunders
in the bibliography section. You can’t really be
blamed though as they do look similar on the
surface; especially the Harvard and MLA referencing
styles.

Harvard Referencing Style
The Harvard citation format, as is already evident
by the name, was invented and introduced by the
Harvard University to help its students reference
their papers. This style is parenthetical in nature,
and its aim is to help students, scholars and writers
to incorporate the quotes, ideas and findings of
other people into their work. The Harvard
referencing style is very popular.

MLA Referencing Style
The MLA citation format was devised and
developed by the Modern Languages Association
and is widely used in academic writing. The MLA
format too is parenthetical in nature. However, you
can also make use of it to reference at the end of
your paper in the bibliography section.

The Difference Between the Usage of
the Two Referencing Styles
Both Harvard and MLA Referencing styles are used by
different groups of different students who are pursuing
different courses. For example, if you are a student of
humanities or behavioral, natural or social sciences, you
professors will prescribe the Harvard referencing style for all
the assignments you do.
On the other hand, the MLA Referencing style too is used
mostly in the field of humanities, but its focus is more on
documenting subjects that fall under the category of liberal
arts. So for instance, if you are a literature or language or
culture student, all of your assignments will be referenced in
the MLA format.

Difference Between the Formats of
the Harvard and MLA Citation Style
As you know, each referencing style follows a specific format, and
this is where the confusion arises. When you just glance over the
samples, the similarities between them will be apparent. But when
you look closer, you will see some minor changes that will make all
the difference.
For example, when you’re making use of the Harvard format to cite
your paper, you will have to include an abstract or a brief summary
of the topic of your paper.
We will give examples of referencing in the two styles in a section
below so that the differences between the formats of the two
become crystal clear.

Difference Between the Citation of Visual Aids
Among the Harvard and MLA Formats
The MLA style is the direct opposite of Harvard in this regard. While
Harvard has several rules regarding the citing of visual aids, the
MLA style has none. So you are basically free to mention the
resources the way you want to. However, it will be wise for you to
consult your professor before you reference visual aids in the MLA
format.
These were the major differences between the Harvard and MLA
styles, and they have been successful in establishing the fact that
even though these styles may seem similar, they really are not.
They have their own set of guidelines, which set them apart from
each other as well as other popular citation styles such as APA,
Chicago, Vancouver and the like.

Referencing Samples in Harvard:
1. Book with a single author: The name of the author
comes first, followed by the rest of the details.
Example: Patterson, J. (2007). Maximum ride. New
York: Little, Brown.
2. Books with two authors (or more): The names of
both the authors have to be mentioned with their last
names first in alphabetical order.
Example: Desikan, S. and Ramesh, G. (2009). Software
testing. Bangalore, India: Dorling Kindersley, p.149.
Chapters of edited books: The format you use here is
the last name first along with the initial of the first
name followed by the title of the chapter, the name of
the editor and the rest of the details.

3. Bressler, L. (2013). My girl, Kylie. In: L. Matheson,
ed., The Dogs That We Love, 2nd ed. Boston: Jacobson
Ltd., pp. 87-99.
4. Print journal articles: To cite such sources, you will
have to mention the name of the author, followed by
the title of the article and then the name of the
journal.
Example: Ross, N. (2016). On Truth Content and False
Consciousness in Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory.
Philosophy Today, 61(3), pp. 273-281.
5.Website journal articles: The process of citing
website journals is more or less the same as the print
one with the only difference being that you will have
to mention the word ‘online’ in brackets as well as the
URL.

Examples: Bressler, L. (2013). My girl, Kylie. In: L.
Matheson, ed., The Dogs That We Love, 2nd ed.
Boston: Jacobson Ltd., pp. 87-99.
6. Print journal articles: To cite such sources, you will
have to mention the name of the author, followed by
the title of the article and then the name of the
journal.
Example: Ross, N. (2016). On Truth Content and False
Consciousness in Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory.
Philosophy Today, 61(3), pp. 273-281.
7.Website journal articles: The process of citing
website journals is more or less the same as the print
one with the only difference being that you will have
to mention the word ‘online’ in brackets as well as the
URL.

Examples: Raina, S. (2017). Establishing Correlation
Between Genetics and Nonresponse. Journal of
Postgraduate Medicine, [online] Volume 81(3), p. 156.
Available at: http://www.proquest.com/products-
services/ProQuest-Research-Library.html [Accessed 31
Mar. 2017].
Websites: This needs to be mentioned separately as
not all articles on the web have the name of the
author mentioned. In that case, you will just have to
mention the name of the website, the title of the page
and the URL.
Mms.com, (2016). M&M’S Official Website. [online]
Available at: http://www.mms.com/ [Accessed 26 Feb.
2017].

8.Ebooks and PDFs: Start with the name of the author,
following the usual format and end with the URL and
date of access.
Examples: Zusack, M. (2016). The Book Thief. 2nd ed.
[ebook] New York: Knopf. Available at:
http://ebooks.nypl.org/ [Accessed 7 Jan. 2017].
Archived Sources: Archived resources follow the same
format as books, only in the place of the publishing
house, you have to mention the name of the
university.
Pearson, J. (1973). Letter to James Martin. [letter] The
Jackson Historical Society, Civil Rights Collection.
Jackson.
9.Movies and Videos: Simply mention the name of
the movie, the country of origin and the filmmaker.
The Color Purple. (1985). [film] Chicago: Alan Metter.

Referencing Samples in MLA:
1.Books with a single author: The name of the author
will come first. However, here you will have to
mention the full name and not just the initial.
Examples:Mather, Jean-Philippe. French Resistance:
The French-American Culture Wars. Minneapolis: U of
Minnesota P, 2002. Print.
2.Books with two authors (or more): The names of
the authors need not be mentioned in alphabetical
order as long as they match the order on the cover of
the book.
Examples: Booth, Wayne, C., Gregory G. Colomb, and
Joseph M. Williams. The Craft of Research. 3rd ed. U of
Chicago P, 2005. Print.

3.Chapters of edited books: Not only will you have to
mention the name of the author over here, but you
will also have to mention the name of the editors.
Examples: Browne, Tom J. “The Role of Geographical
Information Systems in Hydrology.” Sediment and
Water Quality in River Catchments. Ed. Ian Foster,
Angela Burnel and Bruce Webb. Chichester: John
Wiley & Sons, 1999. 25-31. Print.
4. Print journal articles: The format of citing them is
more or less the same as the books, and the name if
the article will come straight after the name of the
author.
Examples:Piper, Andrew. “Rethinking the Print Object:
Goethe and the Book of Everything.” PMLA 132.1
(2009): 118-25. Print.

5.Website journal articles: As for website journals and
articles, unlike Harvard, the date of access here will
come before the URL rather than after it.
Examples:Sie, I., M. Thorstad and B.M. Andersen.
“Infection Control and Methicillin-Resistant
Staphylococcus Aureu in Nursing Homes in
Norway.” Journal of Hospital Infection 80.4 (2009):
278-298. ScienceDirect. Web. 7 Sep. 2010.
<http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0
195670108002521>.
Websites: To cite web pages that do not have an
author, you will have to mention the name of the
article along with the websites name.

Romance Languages and Literatures Resources
Page. n.d. University of Chicago. Web. 15 Nov. 2015.
<http://rll.uchicago.edu/resources>.
Ebooks and PDFs: Here too, the date at which you
accessed the PDF needs to be stated before the URL.
Also, don’t forget to mention the edition of the book.
Kerzner, Harold. Project Management: a Systems
Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and
Controlling. 12th ed. Hoboken: Wiley, 2010. Ebook
Library. Web. 22 March 2015.
<http://www.uwa.eblib.com.au.ezproxy.library.uwa.ed
u.au/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=331376>.

6.Archived Sources: To cite archived sources in the
MLA format, you will have to give a detailed
description of the source, which means going as far as
to give the detail of which folder it belongs to.
Examples:Summers, Clara. Letter to Steven Summers.
30 July 1943. Box 2, Folder 3. MSP 97 Steven and Clara
Summers papers. Virginia Kelly Karnes Archives and
Special Collections Research Center, Purdue University
Libraries, West Lafayette, IN. 22 September 2015
7.Movies and Videos: Lastly, to cite a movie in the
MLA format, you have to give the name of the movie,
the name of the directors as well as the actors in the
lead role.

Back To The Future. Dir. Alan Silvestri. Perf. Michael J.
Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lia Thompson, and Thomas F.
Wilson. 1985. Republic, 2005. DVD.
We hope now the dissimilarities between the two are
now truly clear to you. If you get stuck, remember that
barring a few exceptions, the name of the resource
concerned will usually not be italics in the MLA format
while it will be so in Harvard.

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Harvard and mla referencing styles

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