What is Referencing?

Referencing in academic writing is the art of acknowledging the work of others that you have incorporated into your work.

Why do we reference?

´   ´   To provide evidence to support your work.

     ´   To avoid intellectual theft (Plagiarism see more here).

     ´   To give the reader easy access to your sources.

     ´   To demonstrate one’s deep understanding of the topic.

When should we not reference?

o   When concluding; because you have already done that in your main body.

o   When referring to your personal experiences.

o   When summarizing historical events or common knowledge.

How to reference?

We reference others work by using in-text citations through the Author surname-date method in the paragraphs and later, provide more information about these in-text citations on the reference page.

In-text citations either can be a direct quotation or a paraphrase.

a       Direct Quotation	Paraphrase
According to Neville (2007, p. 99), ” Never put a WWW address as a citation in the text.” (Always include the page number in direct quotes)	Neville (2007) argues that when citing we should never opt to use a WWW address in our writing.

Kindly note that it is at your discretion whether your citations are idea-focused, e.g., When citing we should never opt to use a WWW address in our writing (Neville, 2007). Or Author focused, e.g., Neville (2007) argues that when citing we should never opt to use the www address in our writing.

 

1.   Reference list

It can either be a Reference or a Bibliography. It is a “Reference” when you only include the sources you have cited and it is a “Bibliography” when you include in it both the sources you have cited and the ones you feel influenced your work but you have not cited. The reference list is usually the last page in your essays or articles, it should be in alphabetical order and not numbered.

The 3 most used types of Referencing styles

They are the only minor difference between them that can only be noticed if one pays attention. But it's important to know that almost all institutions often focus on only one style. So, it is better perhaps for one to familiarize themselves at least with the one your institution recommends, or rather one can explore them all.

 Harvard reference style

In-text citation: (Author date) = (Nande 2021)

Reference list: Format for a book.

Author Surname, Initials. (Year of publication) Book title. Place of publication: publisher.

For example, Nande, R.W. (2021) The beauty boiling point. Lusaka: KPRINX.

 American psychological association (APA)

In-text citation: (Author, date) = (Nande, 2021)

Reference list: Format for a book.

Author Surname, Initials.  (Year of publication). Book Title. Place of publication: Publisher.

For example, Nande, R.W. (2021). The beauty boiling point. Lusaka: KPRINX

      Modern Language Association (MLA)

In-text citation of this one is not the author-date method, but author-page = (Nande p.45).

The reference list also for this style is different as it is termed “Work cited” but still it is a list of all the work cited: Format for a book.

Author Surname, Forename. Title of book.* Place of publication: Publisher, year of publication

For example, Nande, Rui Written. The beauty boiling point. Lusaka: KPRINX, 2021.

*Kindly note that the above article and book do not exist, they are just for illustration sake.

 To learn more on the difference between these three types of referencing click here

Adapted from Neville, C. (2007) The complete guide to referencing and avoiding plagiarism. England: Open University Press.

Further Reading Material

Pears, R. & Shields, G. (2016) Cite them right: the essential referencing guide. (10th ed.) Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

 

Feel free to ask any questions in the comment section.