Presentation on

Style of Referencing

Dr. Madhu Thakur

Assistant Professor

Department of Management Studies

Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology,

Bhopal 1
Style of Referencing

Referencing styles are a set of rules that tell you how you should
acknowledge the intellectual works of people that you use in your
research. Referencing is an important part of successful academic
writing. It helps you avoid plagiarism while doing your assignments.

What is referencing?
Academic writing relies on more than just the ideas and experience of
one author. It also uses the ideas and research of other sources: books,
journal articles, websites, and so forth. These other sources may be
used to support the author's ideas, or the author may be discussing,
analysing, or critiquing other sources. Referencing is used to tell the
reader where ideas from other sources have been used in an
assignment.
Why reference?
There are many reasons why it is important to reference sources
correctly:

• helps you to avoid plagiarism by making it clear which ideas are your
own and which are someone else’s
• shows your understanding of the topic
• gives supporting evidence for your ideas, arguments and opinions
• allows others to identify the sources you have used.
• It shows the reader that you can find and use sources to create a
solid argument
• It properly credits the originators of ideas, theories, and research
findings
• It shows the reader how your argument relates to the big picture

Failure to properly acknowledge sources is called plagiarism, and it can

carry significant academic penalties. Fortunately, plagiarism is easy to
avoid by following a few basic principles.
What needs to be referenced?

Whenever an assignment uses words, facts, ideas, theories, or

interpretations from other sources, those sources must be referenced.
Referencing is needed when:

• You have copied words from a book, article, or other source exactly.
• You have used an idea or fact from an outside source, even if you
haven't used their exact wording (paraphrasing and summarising)

The only exception to this is when the information is common

knowledge, which is something that anyone is likely to know. If you are
uncertain whether to reference something or not, it is better to
reference it.
When to reference

Whenever you use an idea from someone else's work, for example from
a journal article, textbook or website, you should cite the original author
to make it clear where that idea came from. This is the case regardless
of whether you have paraphrased, summarised or directly quoted their
work. This is a key part of good practice in academic writing.
Citations and references

There are two elements used in referencing:

• A citation in the text of the assignment (also known as in-text

citations)
• An entry in a reference list at the end of the assignment

The citation contains only enough information for the reader to find the
source in the reference list. Usually, this is the name of the source's
author and the year the source was published. For example:

When testing the usability of a website, it is necessary to gather

demographic information about the users (Lazar, 2006).

In this example, (Lazar, 2006) tells the reader that this information has
come from a source written by Lazar, which was published in 2006. This
is a signpost, pointing the reader to the reference list.
The reference list is a list of all the sources used (and cited) in an
assignment. It is alphabetized according to the names of the authors.
Each entry in the reference list contains detailed information about one
source. This usually includes the author's name, the year of publication,
the title of the source, and source location details (e.g., publisher’s
name, URL). For example:

References
• Durie, M. (2003). Ngā kāhui pou: Launching Māori futures. Huia.
• Hazledine, T., & Quiggan, J. (2006). Public policy in Australia and New
Zealand: The new global context. Australian Journal of Political
Science, 41(2), 131–143.
• Lazar, J. (2006). Web usability: A user-centered design approach.
Pearson Addison Wesley.

A reader could use this information to find these sources in a library or

online. All of the most common styles list every source used in a
document at the end, in a reference list or bibliography.
The styles differ in format.

• For example, an APA in-text citation incorporates the author's name,

the year of publication, and sometimes the page number, separated
by commas:

(Lazar, 2006, p. 52)

• An MLA in-text citation, on the other hand, does not include the year
or commas:

(Lazar 52)

Likewise, an APA reference list entry puts the year in brackets after the
author's name:

• Lazar, J. (2006).
• An MLA works cited entry puts the year nearer the end of the entry:

Lazar, Jonathan. 2006.

There are other differences between these two styles. For instance, APA
includes first initials whereas MLA uses full first names. When
formatting a reference, follow the style you have been set closely.
At Massey University

APA style is the most common referencing style, but different schools,
departments, and lecturers may have their own requirements.

• APA style is commonly used in Education, Business, and some Social

Sciences and Humanities disciplines.
• MLA style is often used in English and Media Studies.
• Oxford style is often used in History, Philosophy, and Classics.
• Harvard and Chicago styles are used by some individual disciplines.

If you are unsure what referencing style you are required to use, check
your introductory course materials. If a style is not specifically
mentioned, ask your course coordinator.
Other styles

These are rarely used, but some assignments will require you to follow
styles such as the Australian Guide to Legal Citation or styles specific to
a print journal.

Vancouver style is sometimes used in science journals, for example. This

style uses a number to represent each source, and lists the sources in
the reference list in the order they were used.

For further information on these styles, consult style guides in print or

on the journal's website (for example the AAA style guide).