Spot The Differences: Checking Your Reference List for Consistency

Step 1: Format Your References
As an exercise, I recommend grouping your references by type, meaning you can have books all together, journal articles all together, and web pages all together, then any other types of resources. In your final reference list, you will need to alphabetize entries by the author name, rather than organize them by type. However, grouping your references by type initially can help you catch mistakes. 

If you aren’t sure what entries are what type of source, this is a good chance to go take a second look at them or review our APA Methods to the Madness webinar on what formatting is expected for each type. We recommend building your references from scratch so that you can learn the formats yourself, but if you’re using the citation provided in a database etc. and it isn’t apparent to you which type of source you’re using, review this webinar for assistance.

Step 2: Look At All the References
Now that you have them all separated by type, take a moment to scan through all the references—note that the first two aspects of all references are the same: Author last name, first and middle name initials (or organization name, if there is not an individual author), followed by a publication year or n.d. (which stands for no date)).

Are any of your entries missing authors? Are any entries listing authors' full names instead of the required last names and initials? This is a good chance to check for this type of common error.

Another question to ask: Do I have a date or n.d. for all entries enclosed in parentheses and followed by a period? If not, these are small fixes.

Step 3: Review Formatting by Type
Now that you’ve looked over the basic reference formatting to ensure consistency, double check each type. A great way to find an example of each main type that is correct is to use our Common Reference List Examples page.  

For books, you’ll notice you have the title of the book in italics, words over 4 letters and proper nouns capitalized. Additionally, books have publisher information and city information, as well as a period at the end of the entry. Double check these important elements: that titles of books are italicized and that you've included publication information.

In this example, I have bolded elements with different formatting here for emphasis to demonstrate the editing process. 

"Spot the Differences" Example
Helakoski, C. 2017. Why Writing Centers are Great. New York, NY: Bedford St. Martins.

Barnes, M. (2015). Establishing a writing center. Boston, MA: Macmillan.

See how the bolded sections here differ between entries? In the Helakoski entry, the publication year is missing parentheses and the tile of the book is missing italics. These are quick fixes that are easy to spot looking at the reference entries side by side. Note that these entries are not yet in the correct order, but we'll fix that in Step 4. 

Corrected Revisions
Helakoski, C. (2017). Why writing centers are great. New York, NY: Bedford St. Martins.

Barnes, M. (2015). Establishing a writing center. Boston, MA: Macmillan.

For journal articles, you have the title of the article itself, which follows the same capitalization rules as book titles: Capitalize the first word, proper nouns, and the first word after any colons. This title is not italicized. Then, you have the title of the journal itself, which is italicized and all words over 4 letters should be capitalized. Additionally, you need a volume/issue number and retrieval information like a doi or a URL.

Double check if all your journal article entries have non-italicized titles, italicized journal titles, and publication information including a doi or URL.

As above, I have bolded the elements of these two entries which are formatted differently for emphasis.

Spot the Differences Example
Nicole Townsend. (2016). The importance of writing centers. Journal of Writing, 15(7), doi: XXXXX

Bakke, A. (2014). Writing tutors and learning. Writing Center Journal, 2(5), retrieved from: http://www.writingcenterjournal.org

In this example, the first author isn’t listed with last name and initial. The second entry does not include italics for the journal title. Also, the two entries are not yet alphabetized. One difference that we don't need to correct is that one article has a doi and the other has a URL. Some articles will not have doi numbers, in which case including the URL of the journal homepage is correct.

Corrected Revisions
Townsend, N. (2016). The importance of writing centers. Journal of Writing, 15(7), doi: XXXXX

Bakke, A. (2014). Writing tutors and learning. Writing Center Journal, 2(5), retrieved from: http://www.writingcenterjournal.org

For webpages, there should be no italics in your entry. You will also need a retrieval URL and no retrieval date. Also make sure to include the title of the page you visited.

Here, as above, I have bolded aspects of these examples to demonstrate differences for revision in the editing process. 

Spot the Difference Example
Laureate Education. (2017). Student learning. Retrieved from: http://laureateed.org/learning

Shiota, J. (n.d.). Why writing centers matter. Retrieved from: http://www.writingcenterblog.org/centers-matter

Here, there are some differences that aren’t an issue. Like how the first entry has a publication year and the second reads n.d. Also, the first entry has the company/organization as the author and the second lists a specific author. But there is one error we want to fix, and that’s the italics in the second entry which should be removed.

Corrected Revisions
Laureate Education. (2017). Student learning. Retrieved from: http://laureateed.org/learning
Shiota, J. (n.d.). Why writing centers matter. Retrieved from: http://www.writingcenterblog.org/centers-matter

Step 4: Re-assemble Your References Alphabetically
The final step is to put all of your revised references in order. Here's an example of what the hypothetical sample sources would look like in alphabetical order.

Bakke, A. (2014). Writing tutors and learning. Writing Center Journal, 2(5), retrieved from: http://www.writingcenterjournal.org

Barnes, M. (2015). Establishing a writing center. Boston, MA: Macmillan.

Helakoski, C. (2017). Why writing centers are great. New York, NY: Bedford St. Martins.

Laureate Education. (2017). Student learning. Retrieved from: http://laureateed.org/learning

Shiota, J. (n.d.). Why writing centers matter. Retrieved from: http://www.writingcenterblog.org/centers-matter

Townsend, N. (2016). The importance of writing centers. Journal of Writing, 15(7), doi: XXXXX

Now that your references are arranged by author rather than type, you've finished! Do you have any reference revising tips or did this process work for you? Let us know below!




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