Referencing – Part 1

So what is referencing and why should I use it?

Well simply put, referencing is referring to another piece of work. This could be your own or someone else’s. There are many reasons to use it, perhaps the two most important are that you acknowledge you have extended the work of others and secondly you also add credibility to your own work.

Now many of you will ask then, what is the difference, or is there a difference, between referencing, bibliography, further reading, etc. often found at the end of reports and books? Further reading generally lists items you have used but not directly referenced in your document. You bibliography / references section would list items you have used but and directly referenced in your document. This will become clearer when we look at some examples in parts 2 and 3.

So how do I reference materials?

Well there are several ways, the two most popular are the Harvard and Vancouver styles. of which there are variations on each. We will take a good look at both methods in parts 2 and 3 of this blog post.