Documentation (referencing)

Referencing is the process of citing or documenting
the sources of quotes, theories, ideas, illustrations and diagrams that you
have used in writing your university assignments. When we acknowledge sources
in this way, we give credit to another person’s words, ideas or opinions in the
form of a note and/or bibliographic reference or citation. Referencing is a
standardised method of formatting the information sources you have used in your
assignments or written work. Any given referencing style serves the purpose of acknowledges
the source and allows the reader to trace the source.

Reasons
for referencing a work

There are a number of reasons for referencing any
given research work or write up. Some of these reasons are

·
To show that relevant sources have been
investigated

·
To enable the person reading our work to trace the
original sources we have used

·
To provide documentary support for an argument

·
To give differing points of view of an argument

·
To indicate that we have not used someone else’s
ideas and claimed them as our own

·
Referencing a work adequately will ensure that the
individual is not accused of plagiarism.

It is a must
acknowledge (reference or cite) any work, or part of any work, that you quote,
paraphrase, summarise or copy. However, it is not necessary to reference
information that is considered general knowledge (e.g. that Abuja is the
capital of Nigeria).

Format for referencing a work

Some
of the internationally recognized formats for referencing a work are: