Referencing Guide: References

When you write an assignment and you use the words of others, you are required to acknowledge this - both within your assignment as well as in the reference list at the end of your assignment.

This is known as referencing or citing.

Note:  a list of References is also called a "Bibliography", "Works Cited", "Reading List" - depending on the formatting style.

In-Text Citations

• Basic Principles of Citation
• Appropriate Level of Citation
• Plagiarism
• Paraphrasing
• Quotations
• Quotations From Research Participants
• Personal Communications
• Secondary Sources
• Classroom/Intranet Sources

Generally, you will be 'quoting' or 'paraphrasing' the work of others.  When you quote, you are taking the exact words of someone else and quoting these words in your assignment.  When you paraphrase, you are using the ideas of the author, but using your own words to describe what he/she has provided.

There are a range of referencing types such as APA, MLA and Chicago.  At ECAE, we use the APA Referencing style.

The benefits of citing and referencing someone else's work is that:

• you are highlighting to your teacher that you have explored your subject well and have incorporated opinions of other experts into your assignment and built on their opinions
• you are showing that you understand that while you need to include your own ideas, it is important to read about what others have done.

• To show what information sources you have used for your research.
• To help the reader find more information about the topic or research.
• To prevent being accused of a crime called plagiarism.  Plagiarism is stealing a person's words, ideas or images by not citing the original author.