Law Guide: Referencing

Referencing is a practice of acknowledging other peoples works, ideas, sources used in a paper, assignment, report and conference papers in academic writing.

A referencing style is the preferred format for creating references to sources of information. Format includes the order of elements of a reference as well as punctuation. Unfortunately there is no universal style and every discipline and journal has its own preferred style.

1. To acknowledge the sources of information you have used just as authors of books and journal articles list the sources they have used
2. It is academic courtesy to acknowledge the work of others – none of us know everything and we rely on the work of others
3. Your lecturers/readers need to see from where you obtained your information 
4. Your lecturers/readers need to see how widely you have read; whether you have used key sources and how up to date your information is
5. Your lecturers/readers need to be able to verify the information you have used
6. Plagiarism – using someone else’s ideas as if they were your own, is unacceptable and a punishable offence.

Plagiarism is not just about copying a classmate's assignment but also taking someone else's ideas and writings from books, journals and websites and pretending they are your own. In the academic environment it is essential to indicate where you got your information and ideas from - your lecturers want to see what you have read.