Showing how to use sources in academic work

1. Correct use of sources
How to acknowledge other people’s work in
your assignments

2. By the end of this presentation you should know:
• Why you should reference
• What a reference looks like
• The difference between quotation and paraphrasing

3. Why reference?
• To acknowledge the sources of your information
• To gain marks by:
– Providing evidence to support your arguments
– Enabling your tutors to check the accuracy and
dependability of your sources
• It also enables others to follow up your area of research

4. What is a reference?
A reference is the way that you acknowledge your use of
other people’s work. There are two parts:
• The citation is a pointer in the text of your work, saying
that you are using someone else’s ideas.
– you do this by putting a superscript number into your
sentence like this1. The numbers correspond to the
order in which the sources appear in your work.
• The reference gives the full details of where the information
came from. You put it in a reference list at the end of your
work.
– The order of the references correspond to the order in
which they appear in your work

5. What does a reference look like?
An essay segment
Reading is an essential part of learning, and becomes easier
with practice1
Reference list
1 Moore S. The ultimate study skills handbook.
Open University Press, 2010.
This is the reference
This is the citation

6. What does a reference look like?
The previous slide is a basic example.
Your school or course may require references to be
formatted in a slightly different way. Go to
http://www.bradford.ac.uk/library/help/referencing/ to find
the referencing guide for your course.

7. Quoting
Quotation is when you use the exact words of someone
else’s work
You must make it plain exactly which words you are
quoting, and acknowledge the source that they came
from.
Charts, diagrams, photographs, code, etc. from someone
else’s work also count as direct quotes.
For more information go to
http://www.bradford.ac.uk/library/help/plagiarism/avoiding-
plagiarism/#quotation

8. Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing is when you read someone else’s work,
think about it, and rewrite it in your own words, without
changing the facts or meaning of the original
It is usually better to paraphrase, as it shows you have
understood
You still need to acknowledge a source when you have
paraphrased it!
For more information go to
http://www.bradford.ac.uk/library/help/plagiarism/avoiding-
plagiarism/#paraphrasing

9. Direct quotation in the Sciences
If you are studying a science subject you should never
use direct quotation but instead always put ideas into
your own words (paraphrasing). You still need to
acknowledge sources you have paraphrased.
You will still need to label items such as images, graphs
and tables of data that have been copied from other
sources as direct quotations.

10. Example of a correctly acknowledged quotation
“You should never let the
ease of using the Internet
replace using a library” 1
Note the quotation marks
around the quoted text.
The number points to the
item in the reference list .

11. Example of a correctly acknowledged paraphrase
Even though it is often easier
to use internet sites, students
should still use library
resources.1
Here the idea is put into your own
words, so there is no need for
quotation marks. You still need to
acknowledge the source of the
idea .

12. Remember!
If you learn and subsequently use anything from a
resource you have read, you must acknowledge where it
came from, even if you are not using exactly the same
words as the original source

13. What next?
Please go back to Blackboard (the window will still be
open) and click the “Mark Reviewed” button.
The next lesson is on types of plagiarism.

14. For more information visit our website:
www.bradford.ac.uk/library
Plagiarism Awareness for New Students by University of Bradford Library is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International License
We welcome feedback on our documentation. Please email: library@bradford.ac.uk.
.
July 2014