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What is Referencing


When you write your assignment, publish a paper, or write a book, you are required to use literature to strengthen your argument and provide evidence for the points you want to make. Each time you refer to the work of other authors, it is necessary to identify their work and give them proper attribution by making reference to them in your own written work. This practice of acknowledging authors is known as 'referencing'. 

References must be provided whenever you use someone else's views, theories, words, or data. You may need to reference a range of different sources of information, for example from books, journal articles, videos, websites, images, computers and any other print or electronic sources.

Referencing and APA style


There are two parts to referencing: the citations within the text of your paper and the reference list at the end of your paper.

The APA referencing style is an "author-date" style, so the citation in the text consists of the author(s) and the year of publication given wholly or partly in round brackets.

Use only the surname of the author(s) followed by a comma and the year of publication. Include page, chapter or section numbers if you need to be specific, for example if you are quoting, paraphrasing or summarizing.

How to Reference


Go through step 1 to 5 to learn how to reference.