Writing a professional essay requires a set of skills that include technical and qualitative expertise, in-depth knowledge of the given subject, and other aspects as well. One of the essential skills is the ability to present information in the format that will express your ideas and will not undermine the studies and works that you mention in your piece of writing.
Academic writing has several formats and standards that are used in different institutions to guide and educate student and professionals in correct and detailed organization and referencing of sources. One of the oldest and very well known styles is Harvard referencing and formatting.
Look through the peculiarities of the Harvard format:
- One of the biggest advantages, recognized by many universities and institutions, is the ease and simplicity of referencing that is easy to follow and trace.
- Harvard referencing guide uses standard set of requirements for citing the source of information used in the document. It comes to the name of the writer, year of publication, title, place of publication and publisher.
- Besides, it requires from you to provide in-text reference that would include the name, year and page reference of the citation or quotation.
- In regards to the general arrangement of the document, Harvard style is not that strict and the major requirement is font (Times New Roman) and double spacing. The main objective of these guidelines is to make the document more “user-friendly” for the reader.
As the main focus of Harvard style is on the referencing and citations, it is important to be very consistent and follow specific requirements of the guide that identify certain format for books, web and journal citations. Due to the fact that Harvard referencing is one of the most widely used styles, it is being reviewed and updated on constant basis and the latest version can always be found in online stores.
Remember, it is better to use correct formatting from the stage of writing drafts. It is also recommended to write down all the information considering sources you take as a basis at the stage of literature research so as not to forget some important details.
