Referencing : How referencing works

A direct quotation is using someone else’s exact wording in your assignment, and should be relevant to your argument. Too many quotations can disrupt the flow and style of your own writing; your tutor would prefer you to interpret the information in your own words as it shows you have understood the evidence. 

When you paraphrase, you are taking someone else’s writing and putting it in your own words. This is another way of referring to an author’s ideas or arguments without using direct quotations. Your assignment will read more naturally and in your own style of writing, and shows that you understand what the author is saying. You must still cite and reference your source of information

When you summarise you are providing an overview or brief statement of the main points of an article, chapter, book or web page. You always write a summary in your own words and include the author’s main concept. It is different from paraphrasing as you are leaving out detailed information. If you are summarising the main idea you do not need to include a page number in your in-text citation, only the author’s name and year of publication.

Some author’s quote or refer to the work of others and this is secondary referencing. If you wish to use this information, you should try to find the original (primary) source and cite from the original author’s work. If this original research is difficult to find or access, and you are confident that the secondary source is reliable then your in-text citation will include both the primary source and the document in which you found it.  But, when compiling your reference list, you will only include the book or article that you actually read, NOT the primary source.  

At the end of your assignment, you will need to provide a complete list of all the citations used in your work. This is a reference list or bibliography, and the citations link to the full details of the information you have used at the end of your work. The list is arranged alphabetically by author’s surname, or by title if there is no author. A reference list allows the reader to locate your original source of information.

A reference list includes all the information you cited in your assignment.

A bibliography includes all the information you cited in your assignment and any additional background sources you may have read but not used in your assignment.

Most tutors require a reference list but if you are not sure which is required, ask them to clarify:

•  write the list in alphabetical order by author’s surname, followed by initials
  • if there are two or three authors, include all their last names and initials
  • if there are four or more authors, use the abbreviation et al. after the first author’s name
• if you use multiple works by the same author, your references will be arranged in chronological order (by year of publication, beginning with the oldest)
• if you cite two or more publications by an author in the same year, you will need to distinguish between them in the text and reference list. You can do this by adding letters after the publication date e.g. (Mullins, 2017a) and (Mullins, 2017b)

Watch this video on how to create a reference list at the end of your assignment.