What is Referencing?
Referencing is a vital part of academic research and writing.
By referring to the sources we used in our work, we:
- demonstrate the depth of our research
- acknowledge and honoring the intellectual contribution of others
- give evidence that support our opinion
- allow the reader to locate a source which we used
When do I reference?
- reference any material which is not your own and drawn from another source reference
- reference direct quotes
- reference summarised or paraphrased information
- reference diagrams, tables, images etc.
- reference statistics taken from another source
- reference information from lectures or personal communication
When do I NOT reference?
- when using general knowledge
- when describing my own thoughts, experiences or observations
What can we reference?
- books, book chapters
- journal articles, magazine articles, newspaper articles
- webpages, websites, blogs
- audio, video, images, photographs
- study materials
- statistics, graphs, tables
- Tip Sheet: Plagiarism Defines plagiarism; explains why it is important to avoid plagiarism; looks at common areas that students find confusing; - outlines a three-step process you can use to avoid plagiarism; and - provides a checklist you can use to avoid unintentionally plagiarising.
Creating a Hanging Indent in MS Word
You can also use the keyboard shortcut Control-T (Windows) or Command-T (Mac).
Hanging indent for reference list
Reference format: 4W
