Style sheet (pdf)

5.2.5 Dictionaries and Encyclopaedias
Only refer to these when the entry constitutes your data or is integral to your
argument. The entry is preceded by s.v. (sub verbo, „under the word‟):
In the Middle English period, the word meat was often used to refer to food in
general (OED Online, s.v. meat n.).
5.2.6 The use of ibid.
When referring to the same work repeatedly, you may use ibid. to indicate when the
quotation has been taken from the same source and page as the last one mentioned.
If you are referring to many different sources, this can become very confusing;
however, for an extended discussion of a single source involving many brief
quotations, ibid. may prove useful. The following example is correct:
When Jane talks to Mr. Rochester about seeing Bertha for the first time, she is
frightened and appalled by the creature she encountered (Brontë [1847] 1998: 340).
She is agitated and confused by the unfamiliar “spectre” (ibid.).
5.3 Paraphrases
If there is no need for you to quote verbatim, „word-for-word‟, you should
paraphrase, i.e. report in your own words what is said in the source. The example
below is a good paraphrase of the original (see page 4 of this Style Sheet):
Schlant explains that literature can tell the reader much about the nation that
produced it even unintentionally, and that what is left unsaid or untouched may be
as revealing as that which is discussed (Schlant 1999: 3).
If you quote verbatim without using quotation marks – as if you were paraphrasing –
you are in fact plagiarising, which is illegal. The following example, then, is
plagiarism – even though you have given the author, year and page number:
Schlant claims that literature reveals even where it is silent; its blind spots and
absences speak a language stripped of conscious agendas (1999: 3).
Note that the same applies even if you have translated the text yourself.
If you quote or paraphrase without indicating the source, you are committing
theft of intellectual property, which is a serious crime in the academic world.
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