🚫✍️Referencing and Citation ensures you acknowledge your sources and maintain academic integrity 🎓📚.
🔍 Before You Reference: Assess Your Sources
After retrieving your research materials, it's essential to evaluate them critically 🧐. Your academic success depends on:
✅ Understanding your assignment requirements 📄
✅ Effectively analyzing and selecting relevant information 🔍✏️
✅ Using research to build strong, well-supported arguments 💡📚
Writing an assignment isn’t just about correct grammar and structured paragraphs—it’s about demonstrating comprehension, critical thinking, and proper source integration 🏗️📖.
✍️ Referencing: The Key to Academic Success
Referencing is the process of giving credit to the original authors of the sources you use. It allows your readers to trace your research path and validates your arguments. In this unit, we focus on the Harvard referencing style 📚🔤, which is widely used for academic writing.
Referencing doesn’t just happen at the end of your assignment—it starts within the body of your work through citations 📚✍️. Every time you quote, paraphrase, or refer to an idea from another source, you need to acknowledge it with an in-text citation 🔍✅.
🔢 What is a Citation?
A citation is a short reference within your text that points to a full reference in your bibliography 📖. It typically includes:
📌 The author’s last name
📌 The year of publication
This helps readers trace your sources, see where your arguments come from, and ensures proper credit is given to the original authors 🎓📝.
Your reference list should follow specific conventions depending on the type of document 📑✨:
✅ For essays, the reference list does not need a separate page—it can appear immediately after the conclusion under the heading "References."
✅ For research reports, all references should be compiled at the end of the document, rather than after each chapter.
🔹 Journal Article:
📌 Howard, B., 1999. Housing in Latin America. Habitat International, 26(5), pp.335-342.
🔹 Book Chapter:
📌 Peters, F., 2000. Problems with housing in China. In: Smith, R. and Davis, B. (eds). Chinese Policies in the Late Twentieth Century, pp.224-229. Wilson and Sons, London.
📌 If there is only one editor: In: Smith, R. (ed.) Urban Policy in China, pp.233-256. Wilson and Sons, London.
🔹 Book:
📌 Howard, B., 2003. Cuban Housing into the New Millennium. University of Wales Press, London.
📌 Alternatively formatted as: Cuban Housing into the New Millennium. London: University of Wales Press.
(💡 Choose one formatting convention and apply it consistently throughout your work.)
🔹 Academic Research Report:
📌 Nkado, F., 2003. Housing and Development Planning: The Rural Challenge in Limpopo Province. Unpublished Research Report, MSc Development Planning, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
🔹 Conference Paper:
📌 Mwangi, M., 2007. Traffic congestion and its causes in Nairobi. Paper presented at the Association of Urban Transport Conference – Traffic into the New Millennium, Hilton Hotel, Nairobi, 5-7 June.
🔹 Media Articles:
📌 Mail and Guardian, 2005. Houses burning in Cape Town. Mail and Guardian, 24-31 September.
📌 McLeod, D., 2004. Housing crisis looming. Mail and Guardian, 24-31 August.
📌 Mail and Guardian, 2004. Housing crisis looming. Article by McLeod, D. Mail and Guardian, 24-31 August.
(💡 Note: Page numbers are not required for media articles.)
🔹 Web Article:
📌 Roberts, D., 2000. Housing for poor women in Baghdad. Asian People’s Front, Mumbai, 5 October. Available at: www.asianpeople.org.in/bagdad.html [Accessed 5 June 2009].
💡 Key Takeaway: Ensure accuracy and consistency when formatting references in your assignments and research 📖✅.
There are various software tools that can help you with referencing:
These tools make it easier to manage and format your references accurately. 😊
When citing sources in your text, include only the author’s last name and the publication year—no initials ❌🔡.
✅ Correct format:
📌 Smith (1995)
❌ Incorrect format: Smith, N. (2005)
This brief citation allows readers to locate the full reference in your alphabetically sorted reference list at the end of your assignment 📜🔍.
🔹 Citing Direct Quotes
If you’re quoting directly, place the text in single quotation marks (‘…’) and include the page number alongside the year.
✍️ Example:
📌 Smith (1995:4) argues that ‘housing is a right for…’
This approach ensures clarity, consistency, and academic integrity in your writing ✅🎓.
After citing your sources within your text, the next step is to compile a reference list 📚✅. This list appears at the end of your assignment and provides full details of every source you consulted or cited, allowing readers to locate them easily 🔍📜.
🔢 What is Referencing?
Referencing is the process of listing all the sources you used, including key details such as:
📌 Author’s name
📌 Publication year
📌 Title of the source
📌 Publisher
🔍 Why is Referencing Important?
✔️ Gives credit to original authors ✍️👏
✔️ Strengthens your work with credible evidence 📖🔗
✔️ Helps avoid plagiarism and maintain academic integrity 🚫📜
📌 Include References for All Types of Sources:
📚 Books
📰 Journal articles
🌐 Websites
🎤 Interviews
📄 Government documents
📽️ Nonprint media (DVDs, videos)
📊 Database sources
💡 Key Takeaway
A well-structured reference list enhances the credibility of your work and demonstrates academic honesty 🎓📖. By mastering Harvard referencing, you ensure that your research is both ethical and professional.
Citing and referencing go hand in hand 🤝📚. If you cite a source within your text, you must also reference it at the end of your work.
🔹 Citing = Mentioning someone’s work within your text ✍️📌
🔹 Referencing = Listing full details in your reference list so others can locate the source 🔍📖
💡 Think of it like this:
✅ Citing is like pointing to a landmark on a map 🗺️📍.
✅ Referencing is providing the full address so others can find it 📜🏠.
🔄 Example:
📌 In-text citation (Harvard Style):
(Smith, 2020)
📌 Reference list entry:
Smith, J. (2020). Introduction to information literacy. Academic Press.
Mastering both citation and referencing ensures your work is accurate, credible, and plagiarism-free! 🚀🎓
Academic integrity means upholding honesty and responsibility in your studies. This includes properly acknowledging any ideas, data, or words that come from others. Correct referencing helps you avoid plagiarism—the act of presenting someone else’s work as your own—and ensures a fair, respectful academic environment. Adhering to Wits University’s referencing guidelines is an essential part of maintaining academic integrity.
Wits University expects its staff and students to conduct research with honesty, integrity, and care for both life and the environment. The university fully aligns with the principles and responsibilities outlined in the Singapore Statement on Research Integrity.
Wits University takes plagiarism very seriously. Plagiarism involves using someone else’s ideas, materials, literary works, concepts, or creative outputs without proper acknowledgment. Researchers must always credit original sources in their work.
Additionally, all individuals who have made a significant contribution to the conceptualization, analysis, interpretation of results, writing, or revision of a scholarly work must be recognized as co-authors in any publication.
For more details, refer to the Wits University Policy on Research Integrity.