What is referencing?
Academic writing relies on more than just the ideas and experience of one author. It also uses the ideas and research of other sources: books, journal articles, websites, and so forth. These other sources may be used to support the author's ideas, or the author may be discussing, analysing, or critiquing other sources.
Referencing is used to tell the reader where ideas from other sources have been used in an assignment. There are many reasons why it is important to reference sources correctly:
- It shows the reader that you can find and use sources to create a solid argument
- It properly credits the originators of ideas, theories, and research findings
- It shows the reader how your argument relates to the big picture
(For a detailed discussion, see why reference?)
Failure to properly acknowledge sources is called plagiarism, and it can carry significant academic penalties. Fortunately, plagiarism is easy to avoid by following a few basic principles.
What needs to be referenced?
Whenever an assignment uses words, facts, ideas, theories, or interpretations from other sources, that source must be referenced. Referencing is needed when:
- You have copied words from a book, article, or other source exactly (quotation)
- You have used an idea or fact from an outside source, even if you haven't used their exact wording (paraphrasing and summarising)
The only exception to this is when the information is common knowledge, which is something that anyone is likely to know. If you are uncertain whether to reference something or not, it is better to reference it.
Citations and references
There are two elements used in referencing:
- A citation inside the body of the assignment
- An entry in a reference list or bibliography at the end of the assignment
The citation contains only enough information for the reader to find the source in the reference list. Usually, this is the name of the source's author and the year the source was published. For example:
When testing the usability of a website, it is necessary to gather demographic information about the users (Lazar, 2006).
In this example, “(Lazar, 2006)” tells the reader that this information has come from a source written by Lazar, which was published in 2006. This is a signpost, pointing the reader to the reference list.
The reference list is a list of all the sources used (and cited) in an assignment. It is usually alphabetised according to the names of the authors. Each entry in the reference list contains detailed information about one source. This can include the author's name, the year of publication, the title of the source, and other publication details. For example:
Durie, M. (2003). Ngā kāhui pou: Launching Māori futures. Wellington, New Zealand: Huia Publishers.
Hazledine, T., & Quiggan, J. (2006). Public policy in Australia and New Zealand: The new global context. Australian Journal of Political Science, 41(2), 131–143.
Lazar, J. (2006). Web usability: A user-centered design approach. Boston, MA: Pearson Addison Wesley.
Ministry for Primary Industries. (2012). Rural communities. Retrieved from http://www.mpi.govt.nz/agriculture/rural-communities
If they wanted to, a reader could use this information to find these sources in a library or online.
Referencing is a formal system: there are rules and standards to follow when formatting citations and references. Many students find referencing quite intimidating at first. Like any skill, it takes time and patience to learn.
The examples above use APA style, a format created by the American Psychological Association. It is the most common referencing style used at Massey University.
Other styles include MLA style, Oxford style, Harvard style, and Chicago style.These styles are subtly different, and different colleges and departments may ask you to use different styles. Oxford style, for example, uses footnotes instead of in-text citations, and a bibliography instead of a reference list.
For more about the different referencing styles used at Massey University, see referencing styles.