All scholarship builds upon the work of others. When you use the work of others, you must acknowledge it appropriately for several reasons:
(Academic Skills Unit, 2013)
Did you know?
It's not just books and journals that you need to cite. Other types of resources include:
There are many styles of citation and referencing. These fall in to two main categories, footnote styles and author-date styles.
Footnote styles feature citation information in a footnote, as well as in the bibliography.
Author-date styles feature in-text references, giving the author and date, with a full citation in the bibliography.
Regardless of the style required, all citations consist of a number of elements, which allow the resource to be clearly identified. Common elements are:
Additional elements, where relevant, include: