Referencing

This general guidance for referencing is intended to be used by undergraduate students at the University of Exeter. These notes should be used in conjunction with the Exeter guide for the referencing style you have been asked to use (e.g. Chicago, MLA, Vancouver, etc.).

You will come across many different styles of referencing while reading at university. The advice provided in the referencing guidance documents is designed to make it clear how to use each style when writing.

The guidance is provided to help you with your academic work only. If you are writing for publication, you will need to adhere to the referencing style of that specific publisher.

Referencing correctly is an essential academic skill. You are required to refer to the sources you use when producing written assignments at university. There are several reasons for this.

• It gives acknowledgment to another person or organisation's ideas and research.
• It demonstrates your reading and provides evidence for the argument you are making.
• It helps the reader find the source of the information and ideas in your writing.
• It helps you to avoid plagiarism. Plagiarism means presenting another person’s words or ideas as your own or modifying another person’s words and ideas without proper acknowledgment. Plagiarism, whether deliberate or accidental, is not tolerated within the academic community at the University of Exeter. For more information on how to study with academic integrity, look for the ‘Academic honesty and plagiarism’ module for your discipline on ELE.

When writing at university you will use information from a range of different sources. Your tutors will direct you to some but others you will have to find for yourself. You need to select these sources carefully and acknowledge them in your work by providing in-text citations and a reference list, or in some disciplines, footnotes and a bibliography.

You need to evaluate your sources to assess their reliability, authority and validity before you decide to use them. As a general rule, you should not refer to sources such as book reviews, Wikipedia or lecture notes in your work. Do not use or refer to essays that you have found online as these may come from ‘essay mills’ and are therefore not reliable sources. For further guidance on evaluating sources, take a look at the Evaluating Sources LibGuide Tutorial.

Knowing how to cite and reference is an essential academic skill. Knowing how and when to integrate literature by quoting, paraphrasing and summarising is part of this key skill. 

Quotations, which should be succinct, generally use double quotation marks (“quotation”). The source should be cited and a page number provided. Any alterations to the original text should be indicated by using the following conventions.

• Use an ellipsis, three dots (…) to show you have omitted part of the quotation
• Use sic in square brackets [sic] to note an error or spelling mistake
• Use square brackets [  ] to add your own word or phrase to the quotation

Paraphrasing and summarising are employed when it is preferable to use your own words to refer to source material. Both require a citation to be provided. In some disciplines, paraphrasing and summarising are the preferred means of integrating sources into your writing as it enables the writer to demonstrate their understanding.

It is your responsibility to familiarise yourself with the norms and conventions of your discipline for integrating sources. Note that in-text citations and /or your reference list may contribute towards the word count for an assignment. Check with your module leader if you are not sure.