As you could have anticipated, referencing is an essential facet of literary works. When you don’t properly cite them, it can substantially reduce your grades or develop worrisome predicaments such as plagiarism. Nobody wants that, so I’ll provide a few titbits on how to reference your work properly!
(1). Gathering & sorting references:
In phase one of scholarly writing, you typically wrap up with gathering all your references. As you scan through different documents to obtain proof making and support your point, my best recommendation is to keep note of precisely where you are sourcing your facts from.
Create a brief synopsis for every faucet of work you craft, so you remember what it is, and if you comment on major concepts or quotes, please write down the page number. So you don’t have to go through the entire work hunting for a single term! If you maintain a document comprising the author’s name, publication year, and pertinent page numbers. It’ll save you from trouble big time!
(2). Cite as you go!
I learned my lesson the hard way. I once wrote a review paper and decided to wrap-up all my in-text references in the end. Let me articulate to you that the agony was sufficient! I had to discard what I wrote and start from the beginning. So, learn from my errors, do your in the text referencing as you go!
You need not have the complete list of citations completed when you write your paper, but you must wrap up with the in-text citations when you write because you only know the name of the authors, their source, year of publication, and the page number. If you do so, you will save yourself the agony of going through your browser history to find which journals you referred to.
(3). Pro tips for in-text citations:
Two things concerning in-text quotations must be emphasized. Provide a page number & complete citation if you use a direct quote. You don’t have to add page numbers if you paraphrase a notion.
Beware that you would want to double-check what reference style you need. APA and Harvard, for example, have various in-text quotations restrictions. These kinds of minutiae are only worth noting, so double-check that you reflect your quotation with the reference style that you are obligated to uphold.
(4). Finalizing reference lists:
This is different for all, but whenever I write my project, I choose to sort up my list of references. Citations can be a very tedious (and painful) task because it’s quite fussy, thus at the end of the day, I find it convenient to do it, all in one go.
You can copy the references from Google Scholar. That’s incredible because it’s easy, right? The difficulty is that oftentimes all the elements may not appear, or the commas might not be placed appropriately.
I know that referencing can certainly feel like a hassle, particularly as you have to pay heed to all the little nuances and rules, but when you get the hang of it, it’s not so difficult.
