What is referencing?
Referencing is a standard way to format the sources you have read and used in your assignments or written work. Any given referencing style serves two purposes:
- acknowledges the source
- allows the reader to trace the source.
In other words, show some love for your source and the reader...and show off your research skills!
Why reference?
Referencing your writing:
- shows that you can follow academic writing standards
- shows respect for and acknowledges the work of other scholars (thereby avoiding plagiarism)
- provides evidence that you have read and considered the relevant literature
- allows the reader to check the sources used in your work, and
- gives your work more credibility.
In- text referencing
You need to acknowledge the sources you use within your assignments and again at the end of the assignment in a reference list. Click on the short video below which focuses on how to set out your references within the essay or report you are writing. Remember...you need three key pieces of information in a citation!
- AUTHOR NAME
- YEAR of PUBLICATION
- PAGE NUMBER
Check out some more examples in the USQ Harvard AGPS referencing guide.
Incorporating sources in your writing
The way you write about the ideas you have gathered from your research can help the reader see how you connect your analysis to what the source is saying. So it's useful to have a variety of ways of incorporating your sources' ideas smoothly into your assignment.
Read this short sample paragraph. Note how the writer incorporates the sources and links them to their own analysis at the end of the paragraph.
Doyle (2000, p.347) states that the way to create a feeling of high value for consumers is to make them think they are getting an experience that is “beyond expectation”. This concept of high value can clearly be seen in a Gold Class cinema experience which aims to give the customer a “luxuriously intimate setting” (Event Cinemas 2017). Therefore, consumers may feel that the money spent on a trip to Gold Class provides a total experience of luxury in a way that a visit to a regular cinema would not.
Watch this short video to get some more tips.
Writing your reference list
Your reference list is a complete list of all the sources that you have used in the text of your assignment. Here is a link to the USQ Harvard AGPS referencing guide. You may want to print it out to have beside you when you are writing your reference list. You can also look at our short tutorial on how to write your references.
Avoiding plagiarism in your writing
For guidance about what plagiarism is and how to avoid it, please see the USQ Library website. IT includes information about how to correctly include paraphrasing and direct quotes in your writing.
Want to check the originality of your draft before you submit? Here's how!
Turnitin is text-matching software that lecturers and students can use to assess the amount of text that has been directly copied from the original source. This can help you as a writer to check if you have accidentally paraphrased too closely to the original text. If your lecturer has not set up a class in Turnitin and it is not available in your current course, you are still able to check your assignment. A Turnitin generic class has been set up to provide you with the ability to self-check your assessment.
Do NOT use this method if your Course Assignment Submission (within StudyDesk) has Turnitin enabled, as this will cause duplicates in the system resulting in 100% originality reports. Please check with your lecturer before using the Turnitin website.
- Navigate to www.turnitin.com
- Log into your Turnitin account (if you are not sure how, click here for information)
- Select Enrol in a class and use the Turnitin generic class details (only accessible to USQ Staff and Students) which can be found here
- Once enrolled, select the USQ generic class and submit your assessment in here. Please allow up to 10 min - 24 hrs for a Turnitin report to be generated.