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REFERENCING YOUR ASSIGNMENTS
Referencing, or citing, means acknowledging the sources of information and ideas you have used in an
assignment. It means that whenever you write an assignment that requires you to find and use specific
information you must acknowledge where you have found the information.
WHY REFERENCE?
You should not write an assignment that is made up of just general, unsupported statements. You need
to use ideas and facts collected by others to support your arguments.
The referencing in your assignment shows where these ideas have come from. By using references
appropriately, you will show the breadth and quality of your research and avoid plagiarism.
THE ‘RULES’ OF REFERENCING
There are
three main rules
of referencing:
1. A reference must be included every time you use someone else’s ideas or information.
2. A reference must be included when you:
paraphrase
(express someone else’s unique idea in your own words)
quote
(express someone else’s ideas in their exact words)
copy
(reproduce a diagram, graph or table from someone else’s work).
3. Each reference must appear in two places:
in the text
of your assignment each time it is used (the in-text reference)
on the last page
of your report in a more detailed summary of sources used called a
Bibliography
.
There are different ways of doing this but at Somerset College you are expected to use the
Harvard
system of referencing.