Referencing in academic

writing
Citation and reference
• The terms cite and refer (or citation and reference) are often used to
mean the same thing since to cite a piece of work is to provide a
reference to its source.
• The terms reference list and bibliography are sometimes used to mean
the same thing, that is, the complete list of references or bibliographic
details for the sources you have cited.
Defining referencing
• An essential aspect of successful academic writing is making references to the
literature.
• Definition: Referencing is ‘the process of systematically acknowledging all the
sources that have informed your writing’ (Wyse & Cowan 2017:86).
• According to (Mֿatauraka, 2017:3), In academic work, referencing is the appropriate
acknowledgement of: Ideas and work that originate from another person,
• All the information that you have included in your work that comes from some other
source (which is not common knowledge or widely accepted) should be
acknowledged.
• REFERENCING is a method of giving credit to someone’s work that you have used
in your research (Smith 3 September 2022).
Sources that we can reference
• For your academic assignment or research, you can reference the
following;
• Books, Dissertation or Thesis, journal articles, magazines, newspapers,
websites, online discussions, interviews, brochures, documentaries,
printed pictures or diagrams.
Main purposes of referencing
• 1.To enable your reader to refer to the texts you reference, so they can find out more
information or check the facts themselves. READERS SHOULD BE ABLE TO
TRACE THE ORIGINALITY OF IDEAS. (Referencing directs readers to the sources
of evidence you have selected to use in your work which is done by presenting or
citing the author’s or originator’s name, or an identification number in the main text)
• 2.To make your writing more convincing, showing the evidence for your arguments.
• 3.To acknowledge the influence of the work of others on your thinking, avoiding the
serious offence of plagiarism.
• 4.Dehkordi and Allami (2012:1895) citing Hyland, (2000) state that, the citation of
other texts or others’ work or ideas provide support for one’s own position. This can
also help show the newness of one’s work.
Different referencing styles
• There are many different ways of citing resources, some of them are:
• Modern Language Association (MLA)
• American Psychological Association (APA)
• Chicago style
• Harvard style
• Vancouver style
• These styles of referencing sometimes depend on the academic discipline involved. For
example:
• APA (American Psychological Association) is used by Education, Psychology, and Sciences
• MLA (Modern Language Association) style is used by the Humanities
• Chicago/Turabian style is generally used by Business, History, and the Fine Arts
Referencing

• Referencing consists of two parts: citation and the entry in the reference
list.
• Citation is included as part of a sentence in a text.
• It is shown by an author’s surname, the year of publication and sometimes
a page number to show where you are referring to a particular source:
• Example: (Wyse, 2005), (Neville, 2016:7) or Neville (2016:7)
• The author’s name can either be given in parentheses /brackets or their
names may be incorporated into the surrounding sentences.
Citations
• Citations can be direct, meaning that you have quoted directly from a source.
• Example: Owu-Evie and Eshun (2015:72-73) state that, ‘teachers disregard
the language policy to do what they think is appropriate to them in the
classroom’.
• -It can be indirect-meaning that you are referring more generally to the work
of someone else.
• -Citations show exactly where in your writing you are referring to the work of
others and acts like an abbreviation for the full reference given in the reference
list.
• -The citation always includes the author’s surname (no first names or initials)
and the date of the publication.
Examples:
• Obanya (1980:88) argues that the major challenge faced by the African
child in education is linguistic as they are instructed in an unfamiliar
‘language which neither the learner nor the teacher understands and uses
well’.

• -Note that when the author’s name is not mentioned in the text, the citation
consists of the author's surname and the date of publication in brackets:
• For example:
• It was emphasized that citations in a text should be consistent (Jones,
2011).
In-text referencing
• APA 7th is an 'author/date' system, so your in-text references for all
formats (book, journal article, web document) consists of the author(s)
surname and year of publication.
• The basics of an in-text reference in APA:
• Include author or authors and year of publication.
• Use round brackets.
• Example: (Smith & Bruce, 2018)
Illustration…
Direct quoting
• If you quote directly from an author you need to include the page or
paragraph number of the quote in your in-text reference.
• Include author or authors, year of publication and page or paragraph
number of your quote.
• Use round brackets.
• Example: (Smith & Bruce, 2018, pp. 25-26
summary
Citing multiple sources
• When citing multiple works in the same parentheses, citations are presented in alphabetical
order, separated with semicolons.

• E.g.
• While other positive psychology constructs (e.g., resilience, hope, core self-evaluations, social
support) have been studied in people with MS (Alschuler et al., 2018; Arewasikporn et al., 2018;
Farber et al., 2015; Lee et al., 2020; Lynch et al., 2001; Madan & Pakenham, 2014), there is a
dearth of research examining grit in this population.

• The above example is from page 2 of:

• Lee, B., Rumrill, P., and Tansey, T. N. (2022, May 16). Examining the role of resilience and
hope in grit in multiple sclerosis. Frontiers in Neurology, 13, Article 875133. CC BY.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2022.875133
Citing multiple sources continued…

• For example: Owu-Evie and Eshun (2015:72-73) state that, ‘teachers

disregard the language policy to do what they think is appropriate to
them in the classroom’.

• In situations where a foreign language is used for teaching and

learning, both teachers and learners are victims of that language as
they struggle to master it well (Tibategeze & Du Plessis, 2018:89;
Brock-Utne, 2012:774).
THE REFERENCE LIST

• A reference list is the detailed list of references that are cited in your
work.
• A reference list lists only the sources you refer to in your writing.
• The purpose of the reference list is to allow your sources to be found
by your reader. It also gives credit to authors you have consulted for
their ideas.
• A bibliography is a detailed list of references cited in your work, plus
the background readings or other material that you may have read, but
not actually cited.
Secondary/indirect sources
• These are also known as the sources quoted within another source/s.
• -Citing secondary sources, you have not read is strongly discouraged in academic research since
strong research writing is based on using sources you have read.
• -however, when you fail to find the secondary source you must cite it properly as follows;
• EXAMPLE:
• Trost researched “what holds marriage together” (as quoted in Beaujot, 2000, p. 110) and
• found that several typical bonds had weakened.
• Paraphrasing
• When paraphrasing, APA encourages (but does not require) you to include the page number
• along with the author and date.
• Trost proposes that the customs and connections keeping marriages together are no
• longer as effective (as cited in Beaujot, 2000, p. 110*).
reference
• APA Referencing: journal articles (video)
• Hamilton, J., 2016. Attribution, referencing and commencing HE students
as novice academic writers: Giving them more time to 'get it'. Student
Success, 7(2), pp.43-49.

• Neville, C., 2016. EBOOK: The Complete Guide to Referencing and

Avoiding Plagiarism. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).

• Wyse, D. and Cowan, K., 2017. The good writing guide for education
students. Sage.