Proper referencing is a crucial element of academic writing. Students need to add a reference crediting the original researcher wherever they quote or rephrase a piece of content like a book, web page, or article. It aids in citing the sources a researcher has employed in their paper and guarantees that they have proper proof to back up their research. Particularly for scholars, it enables them to establish that their content is unique and authentic.

Moreover, students are asked to attach references to their academic work. It’s essential if you study in a UK university or college as it credits other researcher’s efforts. It enables the paper’s reader to find the referenced sources conveniently and assess their understanding of those ideas. Citing sources helps scholars prevent plagiarism by copying other researchers’ concepts, efforts, or work and showing them as their own. It displays proof of the depth and breadth of your research and helps you gain higher marks.

You need to know how to do proper referencing as not citing your sources is considered plagiarism as you are showing another person’s work as your own. APA, Harvard, and MLA are some of the most popular referencing styles in academic writing.

Both bachelor’s and master’s students usually need to execute correct citations for their dissertations. Which is why there are some aspects to remember when organizing citations for your academic courses. We are one of the best marketing assignment help online in the country which is why we have created a piece on how to do proper referencing for students. This blog is your guide to proper referencing in your academic work.

Essentials to Remember When Organizing References

Familiarizing Yourself with the Citation Style

Before you start citing your sources, you should comprehend the citation technique needed for your dissertation. We have different citation styles for different subjects and colleges like APA, Harvard, MLA, and more. You can use any format anywhere and these formats have different styles of in-text referencing, bibliography, and more depending on the data required to do so.

You can utilize a related style manual or guide to guarantee that you are editing your citations correctly. He describes that these referencing guidelines are usually convenient and students can easily follow them.

Monitoring Your Sources

As you perform your research, monitoring your sources is crucial. For example, you may develop a reference list or bibliography as you move forward. You may find data from sources including book chapters, peer-reviewed journals, and more on your subject. Based on your requirements and citation method, a referencing manager may assist you in categorizing your sources and automatically edit your citations in the perfect style.

It would be ideal if you also noted sources while rummaging through different databases such as the full bibliographic data of the sources you are employing (the complete name of the book or journal plus its title, publisher information, date of publication, page number, etc.

It will make it convenient for you to seek the sources again if you want to analyze or reference them in your dissertation.

Referencing Your Sources in the Text

When you utilize data from a source in your dissertation, you could be required to reference it in the content to offer the due credit. It is called an in-text citation. The form of in-text quotations changes based on your citation technique but they usually add the author’s last name and the publication year.

For example, it may be utilized after a sentence in the first bracket (Sheldon, 1999), to display that the author wrote this sentence in that year.

However, you can use multiple other citation styles to add in-text references depending on the format your university requires. We recommend asking your professor if you don’t know which format to choose.

Another benefit of doing proper referencing is that it increases your chances of getting admission to a graduate program in a university outside of your home country. For example, you can place a regular assignment with proper referencing that you completed as part of your coursework in front of the admission committee as a writing sample. If you want to know how to write a perfect assignment with the right referencing, you can contact a professional accounting assignment writing service.

When Do You Need to Do Proper Referencing?

Scholars are required to give proper credits in all sorts of academic texts including dissertations, thesis, research papers, and assignments. Here are some of the reasons why you need to give citations in your work:

• To prevent plagiarism displaying where you are taking data or ideas from another source
• To provide full credit to the writer of that source
• To let the reader turn to those sources for themselves

Proper referencing is required whenever you include a source in your academic work. It typically means paraphrasing or quoting. You only need to copy a small piece of the content word for word inside quotation marks to quote a source. If you want to paraphrase a source, simply change it in your wording and quote it. Just keep in mind that the paraphrased piece of text should not be too close to the actual wording.

You can utilize a paraphrasing tool if you don’t wish to change it by yourself. Citations are required whether you paraphrase or quote and whatever kind of source you use. Along with referencing scholarly sources such as journal articles and books, always remember to add references for any source you use for examples, ideas, or evidence. It involves YouTube videos, websites, and lectures.

You typically don’t need to reference common knowledge as it is the data that you can think most people know like the fact that London is the capital city of the United Kingdom.

Which Style Should You Use for Proper Referencing?

Typically, your university or the journal you are submitting to will demand you to adhere to a particular referencing style, so examine your instructions or ask your supervisor.

But if your college or supervisor hasn’t provided any guidelines, you could have to pick a referencing style for yourself. Just choose one style and consistently use it.

• MLA style is commonly utilized in social science and beyond
• APA style is widely used in the humanities
• Chicago style has two systems
• One is the Chicago bibliography and notes used in the humanities
• Second, is the Chicago author data common in the social sciences

Other than the above-mentioned citation styles, there are others for various domains. Ask your supervisor which style to follow or go through the academic work of others from your subject to know which citation method they use.

Your references have these elements in most citation methods:

• Short in-text references at the related points in the content
• A bibliography or a reference list comprising full data on all the sources you have referenced

In-text Citations

Scholars most usually use parenthetical citations for in-text citations having the author-date citations i.e. last name of the source’s author and its year of publication.

Example: Parenthetical citation (APA)

Evolution is a slow process that “may work only by very brief and gradual steps” (Darwin, 1859, p. 622).

A substitute for this kind of in-text citation is the system employed in numerical referencing methods, where a digit is added to the content, correlating to an entry in a numbered citation list.

Example: Numerical citation (Vancouver)

Evolution is a slow process that “may work only by very brief and gradual steps” (1, p. 622).

You can also utilize referencing methods where you add your references in either endnotes or footnotes. Because they are not added to the content itself, these references could give more information and sometimes aren’t supplemented by a complete citation list or bibliography.

Example: Note citation (Chicago)

Evolution is a slow process that “may work only by very brief and gradual steps.”1

1. Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species (London: John Murray, 1859), 510.

Remember a few particular Latin words are also utilized in in-text citations like “et al.” (utilized for more than one writer) and “ibid.” (utilized for repeated references).

Reference Lists and Bibliographies

A reference list also known as works cited or bibliography based on the citation method is where you give complete data on all the sources you have referenced in the content. It shows at the end of your dissertation typically with a hanging indent added to each submission.

The data added in citation entries is widely similar to whatever referencing technique you are employing. For every credit, you need to add the:

• Writer’s name
• Publication date
• Title
• Publisher
• Container (for example the journal research was published in, the website an article showed in)
• Location (for example, a URL or DOI or sometimes a physical location)

The accurate data added changes based on the source type and the referencing style. The order in which the data shows and how you edit it (for example, use of italics, and capitalization) also changes.

The submissions in your citation list are alphabetized by writer’s name. This enables the reader to conveniently seek the related submission depending on the writer’s name in your in-text citation.

APA-Reference-List

In numerical referencing styles, the submissions in your citation list are numbered typically depending on the order in which you reference them. The reader finds the correct entry depending on the number that shows in the content.

Conclusion

It’s crucial to do proper referencing while completing your academic work because failing to do so puts your work in danger of being considered plagiarized. Remember dissertation committees have zero tolerance for plagiarism. If found guilty, you will not only lose marks but also lose your reputation in the eyes of the checkers. Giving due credit to people whose work you have used in your paper allows you to show your work as original and yourself as someone who follows academic standards.

Furthermore, course instructors should also encourage proper referencing practices by telling students the importance of citations as an academic requirement for any type of work. We hope our blog has helped you understand the importance of proper referencing and how to do that. You can consult your college or university’s library to get help with citing correctly. Libraries have tutorials and guides on referencing your sources properly and librarians are usually available to offer direct assistance and suggestions. Another way to do proper referencing in your dissertation is to seek help from professionals at a reputable nursing dissertation help online. They can write your whole dissertation and provide correct citations with it.