Poor Referencing Techniques To Avoid

Referencing, or citation, is an essential academic skill for students to develop. The act of referencing or citing sources involves quoting a reference (which can be a book, author or passage) as evidence to support an argument or statement. In most academic contexts, referencing refers to citing resources used to support a work of writing, such as an essay, to provide credit for the original author of the resource.

Referencing is simple for students to do, though it can be tricky to grasp. Many academic resources have citation guides for students to use. These guides are the most effective way to learn how to cite resources.

Sometimes, students can't break bad habits when they reference resources. There are several referencing techniques that poorly cite resources when used in an academic work. Therefore, students need to avoid those referencing techniques when they write essays.

Poor referencing techniques to avoid

Proper referencing or citation within an academic work is important. The act helps attribute resources to their original author, and shows a student's understanding of crediting their references. Poor referencing techniques, however, don't accomplish that. Here are a few examples of poor referencing techniques to avoid (as referenced from the Harvard Guide to Using Sources):

Uncredited paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is the act of using your own words to describe an idea that belongs to someone else. It's a common technique that's used to reference and interpret referential materials in academic works.

Although it's suggested to paraphrase when needed, students also need to cite their sources when paraphrasing. If you don't cite a paraphrased section of an academic work, it's not properly crediting the author of the information used there. Students should always cite when they paraphrase their resources.

Uncredited quotations

The most common way to credit referential material to an original author is using quotation marks around the referenced material. Students also need to cite the source to properly credit the author of the material.

Uncredited quotations are one of the most common referencing mistakes; they make the quotations in the work look ambiguously credited, since they have no source attributed to them. To properly ensure that readers know where certain quotes came from, it's important to always cite quotations.

Misinterpreting resources

Sometimes, students don't want to omit information that might be relevant to their academic work. In most cases, it's best to avoid referencing material that you don't understand. If you do include material that you haven't properly interpreted or understood, you may misinterpret or misrepresent that material.

Material that gets misrepresented can make the original author or source appear as if the original meaning of their work isn't what they actually meant. To prevent this from happening, it's recommended to only use material that you do understand, properly citing the material when used.