Referencing is an important research skill. It has a number of important purposes:
- It lends weight to your writing and shows that your work is based on reliable research.
- It allows readers to find the origin of your information and verify your sources.
- It helps demonstrate the breadth and depth of your research.
- It helps you puts your work in context which is particularly important for dissertations, final projects and post graduate work.
- It helps you avoid accusations of plagiarism, which is the unethical practice of presenting someone else’s work as your own.
- It gives due credit to the original authors or creators of the work you’ve used.
You should always include a reference to acknowledge where you have used someone else’s ideas.
The Law School uses the OSCOLA Referencing Style
Activity
- Click the picture below to open the Citing Legal Sources using OSCOLA LibGuide in a separate window
- Familiarise yourself with the help and support availabele there so you can take advantage of it as you approach your first assignments and need to reference your work.
