Throughout your course of study you will be involved in reading, discussion (both online and offline) and writing in various forms including web-based projects and presentations along with more traditional essay-style assignments. As you build your knowledge and engage with other students, you will naturally be drawing upon ideas and information that you have read about through your participation in the course, or that you have found independently. It is these ideas and pieces of information, coupled with your own faculties, that will enable you to expand your knowledge, develop critical thinking skills and begin to build your own ideas about the issues and topics covered in the course.
As you take these ideas and use them in your work, you are expected to acknowledge where you have drawn them from. This is referencing.
Well, in academic work, you should be referencing because you are required to. Not referencing the source of your ideas is a form of plagiarism. Plagiarism is a serious offence in the context of academic work.
However, there are a number of other reasons why referencing is important:
It’s Good for the Reader
As you can see, the first three of these reasons are largely for the benefit of the reader. If you have referenced your work thoroughly, your reader will have a clear indication of how you developed your idea or argument. Not only does this make the work far easier to take in, it also gives the reader confidence in your work by demonstrating how thoroughly you have explored the particular topic. What’s more, you have given the reader the information they need to independently pursue their own lines of enquiry.
It’s Good For You
The benefit for you is that your work will carry far more authority if it is referenced correctly. By demonstrating to the reader that you have thoroughly explored your topic your work becomes far more credible. People who read it will take your ideas on board far more easily and can, in turn, reference your work with the confidence that you have done your part in the knowledge-building process.
It’s The Right Thing To Do
Finally, and importantly, it is only ethical to acknowledge the source of your ideas and information. If someone has taken the time to develop an idea, it is unfair to claim this as your own. This is, in effect, what you are doing when you fail to reference correctly in an academic context.
There are three rules of referencing. If you follow them, you can be sure that your work will be referenced correctly:
There are many different referencing styles. Within Internet Studies, you will be using a form of referencing called APA (American Psychology Association).
Each type of source text (i.e Journal article, newspaper, book, TV Show, web page etc.) has its own requirements for referencing. The specifics of how different sources are __ referenced using the APA style can be found here.
Included below are a number of examples that should give you a good idea of how referencing is used.
Referencing Information
Referencing information is relatively straightforward. You have come across information that you wish to use in your work. When you use the information, you include an in-text citation and a full reference at the end of your piece:
On May 1st, 2009 Vodafone began rolling out a 3G network in Australia (Hewitt, 2009).
References
Hewitt, R. (2009). Vodafone extends its regional 3G network. Retrieved May 5th, 2009, from http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,25412873-5014239,00.html
(Note: You’ll see here that the URL of this Web page only appears in the reference list. A URL should never be part of the in-text citation.)
Referencing Ideas
Referencing someone else’s idea is a bit more complex as there are a variety of ways in which we can use ideas in writing. The most common, with examples, are shown below:
Example 1: Paraphrase
Michael Froomkin (2000) has suggested that employers are continually looking for new ways to measure employee efficiency.
Example 2: Paraphrase
Employers are always on the lookout for new methods of quantifying employee efficiency (Froomkin, 2000).
Example 3: Summarise
Michael Froomkin (2000) has reviewed the way in which issues of privacy and surveillance are being affected by technological developments, suggesting that a legal response must come sooner rather than later.
Example 4: Summarise
As our understandings of privacy and surveillance have been radically altered by technological developments, it is likely that a legal response will come sooner rather than later (Froomkin, 2000).
Example 5: Quote
Michael Froomkin (2000, p.1463) has suggested that “employers continually seek new ways to monitor employees for efficiency and honesty”.
Example 6: Quote
In the age of Internet technology, “employers continually seek new ways to monitor employees for efficiency and honesty” (Froomkin, 2000, p.1463).
As you can see, in all of these examples, the writing and/or ideas of Michael Froomkin are referenced to allow the reader to refer to his original article if necessary. In addition to the in-text citations seen here, the reference list for the piece of work would include the full reference:
References Froomkin, M. (2000). The Death of Privacy? Stanford Law Review, 52, 1461-1543.
You need to reference all of the work you produce for your study. This includes, but is not limited to:
Referencing Beyond University
A final consideration is that you may want to consider providing references in your writing beyond your study at University.
If you look back at the reasons why we employ referencing, you’ll notice that none of them are really about academia as much as they are about making your writing more authoritative and ethical.
Is there any reason why you would want your writing not to carry the kind of weight that referencing adds?
Whether writing reports in a business environment or merely posting your latest ideas to your blog, referencing the work of others still achieves the same outcomes:
Referencing is not merely about keeping your lecturers and tutors happy. Referencing is the system by which accumulated knowledge is built.
By using referencing in your work, you add strength to your argument, assist the reader and acknowledge your sources fairly.
Curtin University - Information on Referencing
Curtin University - Academic Integrity - Student guidelines for avoiding plagiarism
Curtin University - Using EndNote
Study Trekk - Guide to studying at University