It's important to use trustworthy sources to ensure the credibility of your research. By providing information about your sources, referencing guides your readers to further reading. Upholding academic integrity through referencing makes you a more responsible researcher and enhances your work's trustworthiness.
By citing your sources, you not only give due credit to the owner of the idea but also show profound respect and recognition for their intellectual contribution. Citations serve as a roadmap, guiding you to the source of information and helping you to steer clear of plagiarism, a practice that undermines the integrity of your work and the work of others. This practice of recognition and respect is a cornerstone of academic integrity.
Referencing is defined as:
the process of acknowledging other people’s work when you have used it in your assignment or research. It allows the reader to locate your source material as quickly and easily as possible so that they can read these sources themselves and verify the validity of your arguments. Referencing provides the link between what you write and the evidence on which it is based (Pears and Shields, 2019, p. 1).
Including references to academic sources in your projects and assignments is standard practice. You are expected to reference every time you use someone else’s words or ideas in your own work.
Referencing is an important way to demonstrate your academic integrity and honesty:
The following is a list of examples of the types of resources you might use for your references:
Source of the flowchart: Purdue University's Online Writing Labs (Purdue Owl)
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