Have you ever thought about the significance of references in our working environment? References play a way more important role than you think. What do you think, what is the reason for creating various reference styles?
Referencing is the part of any academic assignment or paper where every word is taken from other writers and researchers get the credit for the work. Referencing plays an important role in any assignment, that’s why everyone needs to focus on it properly as any small mistake can make you lose marks. High Quality Assignment Help writers have prepared this article to help you understand the importance of refencing, different styles, comparison on how to write different style of refences along with some tips that will be helpful for your resume help.
Importance Of Referencing
The main purpose of using references is to avoid any kind of plagiarism in your document. But that’s not the only reason for using a bibliography. They can help for the following reasons: –
● To acknowledge the researchers and writers who worked before you on this academic topic.
● Reference is like the evidence for every argument you make in your paper.
● You will be seen as the person who’s quite aware of the particular topic as you know about the work done in the past.
● You will be providing additional and original source information as if someone wants to know more about the topic, they can just look for the other work.
When To Add A Reference
Whenever you write any kind of assignment or paper related to any academic subject, you look for content from books, journals, articles, different websites, magazines, newspapers, etc. You are taking their content, so you have to provide a bibliography for that. Doing this will keep your content plagiarism free and the original owner of that information will also get the credit. You have to provide every information you got from someone else including tv interviews or someone’s written quote. You don’t need to cite when you are writing a general fact, your thoughts, your analysis based on their work, any new research you got from your work, etc.
Most Important Styles In Referencing
There are more than 200 reference styles available to use. Each is used for a different purpose and has its uniqueness. If we talk about the academics sectioned the most commonly used referencing styles are APA, MLA, Oxford, Harvard, and Chicago.
American Psychological Association (APA )
In the APA style, both the in-text citation and proper reference section at the end of the assignment are added. APA referencing style is used maximally in comparison to other styles and it is used for mainly educational subjects like engineering, and social studies. In APA style, the name of the author is directly added with the year of publication. Even in APA style referencing varies a little based on the type of document used like for book, journal or article, and website it will be different.
| Material | In-text citation | Reference |
| Book | Author, Date of the published content | Author, Date of published content, title, Publisher |
| Journal/Article | Author, Date of the published content | Author, Date of published content, title, Title of Journal, Location, Date of the published content |
| Website | Author, Date of Publication | Author, Date of published content, Version, title, Location |
Modern Language Association (MLA)
In MLA style referencing both in-text citation and reference section at the end of the assignment is needed. It is used for the humanities part mainly which includes English, Philosophy, linguistics, etc. The First thing in MLA referencing is the author’s name and after that the information of publication.
| Material | In-text citation | Reference |
| Book | Author, Publisher | Author, title, Publisher, Date of the published content |
| Journal/Article | Author, Publisher | Author, title, Title of Journal, Number, Date of published content, Location |
| Website | Author, Publisher | Author, title, Title of Journal, Date of published content, Location |
Chicago Notes and Bibliography
To link the text of your work to the source in this referencing style we use footnotes and endnotes. It is generally used for history and humanities academic work. It will need a separate bibliography page at the end of your work.
| Material | In-text Citation | Bibliography |
| Book | Author, Date of published content, Location | Author, Date of published content, title, Location |
| Article/Journal | Author, Date of published content, Location | Author, Date of published content, Title Source, Title of Journal, Location |
| Website | Author, Date of the published content | Author, Date of published content, title, Version, Location |
Chicago Author-Date
Chicago Author-Date is similar to the APA referencing style. You will need to provide an in-text citation and a separate reference section at the end of your work. You will cover subjects like Physical and Social Sciences.
| Material | In-text citation | Reference |
| Book | Author, Date of the published content | Author, Date of published content, title, Publisher |
| Journal/Article | Author, Date of the published content | Author, Date of published content, title, Title of Journal, Location, Date of the published content |
| Website | Author, Date of the published content | Author, Date of published content, Version, title, Location |
Oxford
In Oxford style referencing in place of in-text citation, a footnote is provided at the end of the page, and a reference section at the end of the assignment is needed. The first thing to mention is the name of the author and after that mention the title.
| Material | Footnote | References |
| Book | Title, Subscript number | Author, Title, volume, date of the published content |
| Journal/Article | Title, Subscript number | Author, Title, Title of Journal, Volume, Date of the published content, Location |
| Website | Title, Subscript number | Author, Title, Date of the published content, location |
Harvard
In Harvard style referencing both in-text citation and reference section comes at the end of the assignment is needed. The first thing is the name of the author and after that mention the date of the publication.
| Material | In-text citation | References |
| Book | Author, Date of the published content, page number | Author, Date of the published content, Title, Publisher |
| Journal/Article | Author, Date of the published content | Author, Date of the published content, Title, Title of journal, Volume, Location |
| Website | Author, Date of the published content | Author, Date of the published content, Publisher, Location |
Comparison Between Different Types Of Referencing
Each referencing style follows a different structure and you can easily distinguish them just by seeing them.
| Material | APA | MLA | Oxford | Harvard | Chicago |
| Journal (Performance implication of strategic changes) | Pangarkar, N. (2015). Performance implications of strategic changes: An integrative framework. Business Horizons, 58(3), 295-304. | Pangarkar, Nitin. “Performance implications of strategic changes: An integrative framework.” Business horizons 58.3 (2015): 295-304. | Pangarkar, N. Performance implications of strategic changes: An integrative framework. 58-3 (2015): 295-304 | Pangarkar, N., 2015. Performance implications of strategic changes: An integrative framework. Business Horizons, 58(3), pp.295-304. | Pangarkar, Nitin. “Performance implications of strategic changes: An integrative framework.” Business horizons 58, no. 3 (2015): 295-304. |
As you can directly see the difference between each structure, you can also see the difference by comparing each referencing style structure mentioned in the above point.
| Material | APA | MLA | Oxford | Harvard | Chicago |
| Book | Pangarkar, N. (2011). High-performance companies: Successful strategies from the world’s top achievers. John Wiley & Sons. | Pangarkar, Nitin. High-performance companies: Successful strategies from the world’s top achievers. John Wiley & Sons, 2011. | Pangarkar, N. Performance implication of strategic changes: An integrative framework. Business horizons 58.3 (2015) | Pangarkar, N., 2011. High-performance companies: Successful strategies from the world’s top achievers. John Wiley & Sons. | Pangarkar, Nitin. High-performance companies: Successful strategies from the world’s top achievers. John Wiley & Sons, 2011. |
Common Tips In Referencing
If you are using Microsoft Word to work on your documents, referencing can be an easy task for you. You can follow these steps to complete the citation peocess in a shorter time.
- Look for the citation and bibliography option on the taskbar of the word.
- Then you will see the insert citation option, click on that.
- Select the referencing style you want to use, Ms-word already has a few referencing style structures added.
- After that select, the option “Add new source”, from there you can choose either a book, journal, etc.
- Add the needed information about the author and all. After that, it will automatically add the referencing according to the structure wherever you need it.
Another easy method is to look for all of the content from “google scholar”, they provide citation options as well which you can just directly copy and paste to your content.
There are few things that you need to seriously consider while writing the referencing as it can affect your assignment performance. These are: –
● Always write the references on a different page from the rest of the work.
● The references should be in alphabetical order in the reference section, you can add it however you like the in-text citation option.
● Always make sure to read your guidelines properly for the referencing style preference, as every university allows for specific styles.
● You can add as many references as you want but the access won’t benefit you either. You can follow the calculation of adding 6-8 references for 1000 words and so on.
Wrap Up
Providing references to the work is an important part of the assignment but it can be challenging if you don’t have the proper information about it. The most commonly used referencing is APA. MLA, Chicago plays a fixed structure for books, articles, and websites. Keep that in mind before using the bibliography. Problems with references are one of the common issues faced by students in their assignments. If you feel like giving the perfect references for your assignments is too tough for you, you can look get your assignment Proof Read and Edited by subject experts and get the work modified as per the marking rubrics.
