Referencing can be a tricky task but acknowledging the contributions and work of others by citing your sources is a critical part of academic writing. Referencing also provides evidence to support your argument or claims in your assignment and allows the reader to trace the sources of information you have used.
There are four key elements of a reference:
- Who – author, editor, creator of the work
- What – title
- When – date or year of publication
- Where – publisher detail and a location such as a digital object identifier (DOI) or web address.
Think of it as a jigsaw but with far less pieces than your holiday jigsaw!
What referencing style do I use?
Be familiar with the referencing style you will need to use – check the assessment details of your assignment as in most cases your course will state which style to follow. If you can use any referencing style, stick to the style you are most comfortable with.
Referencing Guides
Some common referencing questions are:
- How do I reference a book with 6 authors in my reference list?
- Do I need to include the page number when I paraphrase in my essay?
- Does a DOI need to be included in the reference list for ebooks?
The Library has put together some great Referencing Guides to help answer these questions and more. There are guides for the most common referencing styles used at Griffith such as APA 6, APA 7, AGPS Harvard and Chicago.
Each guide provides examples of how to cite (direct quotes or paraphrasing) within the text of your assignment and how reference lists should be formatted at the end of your assignment. We have included examples for different types of resources such as ebooks, electronic journals and websites.
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