Referencing is the way of giving proper credit when you use other people’s words or ideas in your own writing. Many students find referencing tricky but learning how to do it properly is extremely important.  Referencing your sources is an essential part of your academic work, and poor referencing can mean that you lose marks.  

At university, you will be expected to engage with the ideas and knowledge of scholars. Referencing the sources you have read allows your tutors to see the extent of your research.   

The other important function of referencing is that it openly acknowledges the sources you have used in your work.  Failing to show when you use other people’s words or ideas is a serious academic offence.  It is known as plagiarism in universities, and is regarded as a form of theft.

Referencing involves two stages. 

1. First, within your writing you need to clearly mark when you have used someone else’s words or ideas – this is called a citation. 
2. The second part is a detailed list of all the works you have cited in the main body of your writing.  This list appears at the end of your work and is called a bibliography. 

It is important that someone reading your work can easily find the detailed information about your citations.  To make this easy to do, two types of referencing are commonly employed – numbered and author/date.