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Referencing Toolkit

Using Secondary Sources

Situation: How to I reference a quote that someone else has referenced?

If you read an article or book that includes a quote from another author's work that you want to cite, this is called a Secondary Source or Secondary Citation.

For quotes from Secondary Sources include the details of both works in your footnote, as below.

10 A. Smith, Italian Architecture, Melbourne, VIC, Penguin, 2000, cited in D. Brown, Renaissance Italy, London, Faber and Faber, 2002, p. 45.

Citing Secondary Sources

However, in your Reference List only include the source where you found the information.

Example:
        Reference List
           Brown, D., Renaissance Italy, London, Faber and Faber, 2002.

Please Note: Use this method of quoting Secondary Sources sparingly. You should always try to locate the original source of information which is quoted in a work which you have read. However, this is not always possible as sometimes the original work is out of print, unavailable through your usual sources or not available in English.