Transcript: How to use the Easy Cite referencing tool 

Easy Cite is an online tool that provides examples and referencing tips for a wide range of styles used at RMIT.   

Easy Cite is intended as a guide only and some styles are open to interpretation. You should always check with your teacher or lecturer to ensure you are using the correct style for your assessment tasks. 

The Easy Cite web page has four sections: 
 
A navigation menu at the top of the screen links to the “How to use Easy Cite” pop-down area. Instructions for using the Easy Cite tool can be found here. You can open or close this area at any time. 
 
A style guide tab menu sits under the navigation menu. This is where you select the correct style guide for your assignment or task.  

A source type menu is on the left side of the screen. This is where you select the different types of sources that you need to reference.  You may be referencing books, journal articles, websites, audiovisual media such as podcasts or YouTube, or many other types of sources. 
 
The details of the referencing source sub-type sit in the main body of the screen. This provides detailed options about your source material. For example: it shows how to cite a book with multiple authors, or how to cite figures / photos or diagrams you might use in your assignment.

Note that each referencing style outlines the general principles of how to use that style. This ‘Using’ tab explains important information about the style. It gives general rules for in-text and reference list citations, and an example of a reference list. Please read these rules carefully.

Each sub-type category provides examples of both in-text and reference list citations.  
 
When using information from a source text, you can express it as a direct quote or a paraphrase.  
When directly quoting, you must use the exact words of the author and put them in quotation marks.   
Be sure to keep direct quotes to a minimum.  
The paraphrase in-text example will be suitable if you’re using your own words to express an author’s idea. Paraphrasing is the preferred method of citing information.

If writing a reference list citation, you must have bibliographic details such as author names, year of publication, book title and publisher details. 

Each different referencing style requires different elements and formatting. Make sure to pay close attention to the order of these elements. 

Pay attention to the use of capitalisation, italics, commas, and colons, as well as formatting such as hanging indents. These are just as important for presenting the citation accurately.  

There are three options for printing all or any part of the Easy Cite style guide: print the whole guide for your referencing style; print only the source type that you need, or you can just print the sub-type of your source type material. 

You can send your selection to a printer for a hard copy or choose to save it as a PDF file for off-line access. 

You can also send feedback about Easy Cite via the link at the bottom of the page. 

If you need more help, please visit Ask the Library or the Referencing section of the Learning Lab.