Accessible version | Skip to content | Change your text size

Table of contents
Previous pageNext page

Embedded citations

Click on the highlighted text to see the comments.

Look at the following citation from the fourth paragraph of the Harvard sample essay.

This citation is more complex than others in the essay. Whose ideas is the student citing here? Whose book did the student read?

Nicky Hart (cited in Haralambos, 1985), argues that increases in divorce and marital breakdown are the result of economic changes that have affected the family.

Comments

The ideas in this citation are Nicky Hart's, but the student has read about these ideas in Haralambos's book. This situation is less than ideal. It means that the student has to rely on the author (Haralambos) to provide a fair and accurate account of the original writer's position (Hart). In your work, you should always aim to seek out the original source. If this is not possible however, cite secondary accounts as shown.

word outputDownload a printable version of this page (.doc)
Problems? Questions? Comments? Please provide us feedback.