Referencing: Definition, Styles, and Importance in Academic Writing

This presentation provides a comprehensive overview of referencing in academic writing. It begins by defining referencing as the process of citing sources used in a piece of work, emphasizing its role in acknowledging original sources and avoiding plagiarism. The presentation then highlights the importance of referencing, including its contribution to the authenticity of the work, the provision of support for facts and figures, and the giving of credit to authors. It then delves into different styles of referencing, categorizing them into documentary note styles (like Oxford and MHRA), parenthetical styles (such as APA, Harvard, and MLA), and numbered styles (like Vancouver and IEEE). The presentation offers examples of each style and mentions the fields in which each is commonly used, such as MLA for English Literature and APA for Psychology. Finally, it concludes by emphasizing the evolution of referencing and its increasing importance in academic work.

ACADEMIC SKILLS

Table of Contents
 INTRODUCTION
 Definition of referencing
 Importance of referencing
 Style of referencing
 CONCLUSION
 REFERENCES

INTRODUCTION
 The presentation discusses about referencing.
 Referencing is done in an article, blog or journal to cite the work taken in
consideration of various authors to prepare own report.
 The presentation discusses the importance of referencing, its definition, the various
styles used along with examples.

Definition of referencing
 Referencing means when you cite the sources from where the work has been done.
 This is done to acknowledge the original source referred to.
 Referencing is included in work as in-text citations and linking citations to the work
which has been cited.
 Referencing is also known as bibliography.

Importance of referencing
 Referencing importance can be gauged by the fact that it provides authenticity to a
work done.
 It refers to the sources being used which helps in realizing that the report is done by
doing some research and not just own ideas and beliefs.
 It provides support for the facts and figures being included in the work or project.

Continued
 It gives credit to the author whose
work has been referred through
citation at right places.
 This helps in elimination of chances
of plagiarism.

Style of referencing
 The referencing is divided in three main categories:
 Documentary note styles
 In this style, references are provided in foot notes.
 These notes are shown by digits, of which reference is given at the bottom of the page.
 Example: Oxford and MHRA are documentary styles.

Continued
 Parenthetical style
 Also known as author-date styles, in-text
references are given in brackets before full stop of
sentence which contains the reference.
 For example: APA, Harvard, MLA are references
in parenthesis.
 Harvard style examples:
 Stringer, L., 2020. Subject Guides: Referencing
Styles-a Practical Guide: APA.
 Nangle, S., 2018. : Referencing Styles:
Referencing something mentioned in another
source (Secondary Referencing).

Continued
 Numbered styles
 In this style feature, sources are
referred with Arabic numbers written
in brackets and the references are
listed in numbered form. They are
numbered by order as they appear in
text.
 For example: Vancouver and IEEE.

Continued
 The various popular citations and their use can be given as below:
 The MLA style is used in English Literature, Foreign Language, Communication,
Religious studies etc.
 The APA style is used in Psychology, education, business/economics, nursing and
linguistic studies.
 The Chicago style is used in articles of history, art history, fine arts, anthropology and
philosophy.

Continued
 The IEEE style is used in Engineering, Computer Science and Information Science.
 The CSE style is used in subject related article of biology, physics, chemistry and
geology.

CONCLUSION
 It can be said that referencing has evolved a lot in the past century with focus being laid
on authenticated sources which can help improve the work presentation of the article.
 With adequate new styles of referencing being introduced, referencing will be
increasing its presence overall.