Jump to content

User:Redrose64/Referencing Demo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There are two main methods.

I first edited in April 2009; my first edit is recorded under an IP address. By late May I had found {{cite book}}, it's used in my sixth edit although not to provide a true reference; by my eighth edit, I was using {{cite book}} for proper references.

See also User:John Cardinal/Citation method comparison

Single-stage

[edit]

Two-stage

[edit]

The basic method is described at WP:CITESHORT although that implies that everything is done with plain text, no templates. I must have read one or more of the Help: and/or Wikipedia: pages dealing with citations, but can't remember which; but Wikipedia:Citation templates contains most of what I picked up here and there.

I discovered the means for making a two-stage reference actually link together after some weeks: I think that this edit was the first time, although it's linked, the method is primitive compared to the two methods I now favour. If we take the very first ref in Dave Pegg, the four methods for achieving this are:

  1. <ref>[[#refHumphries1997|Humphries 1997]], p. 66</ref>[1]
  2. <ref>[[#{{harvid|Humphries|1997}}|Humphries 1997]], p. 66</ref>[2]
  3. <ref>{{harvnb|Humphries|1997|p=66}}</ref>[3]
  4. {{sfn|Humphries|1997|p=66}}[4]
  1. ^ Humphries 1997, p. 66
  2. ^ Humphries 1997, p. 66
  3. ^ Humphries 1997, p. 66
  4. ^ Humphries 1997, p. 66.

*{{cite book |first=P. |last=Humphries |title=Meet on the Ledge, Fairport Convention, the Classic Years |publisher= Virgin |edition=2nd |year=1997 |ref=refHumphries1997 }}
*{{cite book |first=P. |last=Humphries |title=Meet on the Ledge, Fairport Convention, the Classic Years |publisher= Virgin |edition=2nd |year=1997}}

  • Humphries, P. (1997). Meet on the Ledge, Fairport Convention, the Classic Years (2nd ed.). Virgin.
  • Humphries, P. (1997). Meet on the Ledge, Fairport Convention, the Classic Years (2nd ed.). Virgin.

Try clicking the [1] etc. also the "Humphries 1997, p. 66". The effect varies between browsers. the linking works in both IE7 and Mozilla Firefox 3.0/3.5; but in Firefox, it also shows up as a highlight.

I was still using method 1 when I created Abingdon Road Halt railway station at 12:12 on 22 September 2009, but by 19:31 the same day, had discovered methods 3 & 4 pretty much simultaneously, and used the latter when creating Hinksey Halt railway station. Method 2 is a comparatively recent development, the {{harvid}} template having been created 13 December 2009. I used method 3 in Dave Pegg; whilst {{sfn}} does something similar to <ref>{{harvnb}}</ref> (they take exactly the same parameters and prodice exactly the same effect), but can puzzle people looking for <ref>; however it is quicker to type, and much easier to handle when it comes to duplicate refs. Consider the same page cited twice. Using {{harvnb}} we would do this:

  1. <ref name=Example1>{{harvnb|Humphries|1997|p=66}}</ref>[1]
  2. <ref name=Example1 />[1]

you need to think of a name, and but {{sfn}} cuts out the duplication worry:

  1. {{sfn|Humphries|1997|p=66}}[2]
  2. {{sfn|Humphries|1997|p=66}}[2]
  1. ^ a b Humphries 1997, p. 66
  2. ^ a b Humphries 1997, p. 66.

These days I judge the individual articles on the basis of how many facts come from different pages in the same book: if there are only three or fewer, single-stage referencing is OK; but four or more, I do it two-stage. If I use two-stage, whether I use method 2 or 3 depends mainly on whether it all comes from books (method 3) or if there is a fair proportion of anonymous web pages (method 2).

Reading Southern railway station was the western terminus of the South Eastern Railway's route from Redhill.[1] In the station's final arrangement, there were four platforms;[2]

  1. ^ Pre-Grouping Atlas, p. 4, section A2
  2. ^ Godfrey 1994.
  • British Railways Pre-Grouping Atlas and Gazetteer (Map) (5th ed.). 1" = 8 miles. Cartography by W. Philip Conolly. Ian Allan. 1976. ISBN 0 7110 0320 3.
  • Berkshire Sheet 37.03: Reading 1898 (Map). 1:4340. Old Ordnance Survey Maps: The Godfrey Edition. Alan Godfrey Maps. 1994. ISBN 0-85054-703-2.