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Referencing

In academic writing you must acknowledge all the ideas and information which are not your own by citing references properly. It is important to reference all sources of information used in your community profile properly. To write an assignment you need to get information and ideas from many sources. In coming to your own understanding of a topic you will have drawn on other peoples ideas. When you use other people's ideas or quote from references you must acknowledge that you have done so. If you do not do this you can be accused of plagiarism, which is presenting another person's work as your own.

The Faculty Guide to Presentation of Assignments has detail about how to cite references. Oral and traditional sources should be acknowledged in the same way as written sources. Where a story is known to belong to a particular person, community or group, this ownership should be acknowledged. If ownership is unclear, acknowledgment should be as specific as information allows. If oral sources are found in published texts, both should be acknowledged, for example: (Miniawi cited in Berndt 1979 pp.55-62).

When to cite references:

  • When you borrow or quote words, sentences or paragraphs from a written or oral source,
  • when you paraphrase, or put other people's ideas or information into your own words,
  • when you get an idea from someone else,
  • when you use an idea which came originally from another person or group.

Remember that information sources should be cited in detail throughout the profile. You MUST cite sources of information specifically, in the text. It is not enough to have a list of sources at the end of each section. Author, date and page number should appear in the text immediately after the information cited or quoted. This includes maps, diagrams and illustrations copied from other works. These sources must be cited. A bibliography or list of references should be at the end of the community profile.