Skip to Main Content
site header image

Referencing: About

Referencing

This page will be your go-to for all things referencing. Take a look around. Use the menu tabs at the top of the page to select the area you need help with.

Free Banner Header illustration and picture

What Is Referencing?

Referencing is the process of acknowledging other people's work when you have used it in your assignment or research. It allows the reader to verify the validity of your arguments. Referencing provides the link between what you write and the evidence on which it is based. 

There are two parts to referencing:

1. Citations or in-text citations in the main text of your assignment.

2. A reference list at the end of your assignment.

What Is Plagiarism?

Using someone else's words or ideas without citing or referencing them is plagiarism and is a very serious academic offence (Pears and Shield, 2016, p. 4).

Plagiarism includes:

  • Presenting any part of someone else's work as your own
  • Copying information word-for-word (without quotation marks)
  • Paraphrasing or summarising ideas without acknowledging where you got them
  • 'Recycling' a piece of your own work
  • Citing and referencing sources that you have not used.

To avoid plagiarism, you must reference all of the sources of your ideas and information. Ask library staff for help referencing different sources.

The college uses the software Turnitin which can detect plagiarism in students' work. 

Today's Library Opening Hours

Need Help?

If you need a quick chat about library resources please click on the 'Need Help?' tab to the right and speak to a member of the library team.

 Alternatively, you can: 

  Contact us by Telephone:

0161 674 1021

See FAQs for more help