Referencing for assignments.

willhub

willhub

willhub

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Hi.

So I think I need to improve my referencing, or I'm not going to get far in uni, I gather I will not be taught about referencing in uni, I start in the second year. I have never really being taught about referencing, we got told in college that we must do it, so I've attempted it in my assignments.

I've done referencing in different ways.

Out of these 2 assignments and the different types of referencing in these, is any of the referencing correct?

https://docs.google.com/document/ed...MLBf-_i7xfsVkKxnF-2X8&hl=en&authkey=CKHNrPUB#

https://docs.google.com/document/ed...CUn2PPCIwuwffg6qYzPY0&authkey=CKvM-cYC&hl=en#


Thanks
Will.
 
From what I skim through, its just electronic sources of those bib. And the second one seems to have most if not all the info needed.

Obv different types of information sources requires different details, such as, books - ISBN, SAE paper- sae number, etc etc

Check this link out, says just about all for report format referencing.
http://education.exeter.ac.uk/dll/studyskills/harvard_referencing.htm
above is link to a rather good guide I learnt off.

in short, i think second is the good one :)

EDIT: look up Harvard referencing style
 
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Universities often have a preferred method they expect you to adhere to. A common one is Harvard.

A bibliography is different to references. It is read literature but not directly referenced in the text.

Although you have reference lists at the end of your documents you don't have a link to it in the text. In the text you should put (author, date: page) where a citation or reference can link to the reference list at the end of the document.

There's an okay guide here http://efn.hud.ac.uk/studyskills/referen.html
 
Speak to a tutor to be sure you are using the correct system. A lot do use Harvard, but there are others. I would expect this kind of info to be on your Uni network somewhere.
 
Do try and get hold of (Whether via Uni or personal purchase) a reference manager database. Most of medics in my place use Reference Manager 12, the cite while you write function is very very useful. Do make sure you use your University sanction reference schema, in my day using an incorrect one would immediately sacrifice 40% of your final mark :(
 
What exactly does this reference manager software do? Is it just software I put links in? :confused:

So in my documents where I've put, author, date, I should have also placed the link with it? Seems odd surely because links are long and would make an assignment look scruffy no?
 
We were taught on several occasions how to reference correctly at uni. You'll also find your library is extremely helpful when it comes to this sort of thing, and can help you if you're struggling.

We used Ref Works and Write n Cite at my uni. Basically, you fill all the the info into a database, and once you're done using the reference, click on write n cite and it fills the reference in for the preferred method you've stated.

Read up on Harvard referencing if you're interested in getting a head start.
 
Referencing expectations really vary from institution to institution, from department to department even.

For example, when I was doing my under graduate degree at Staffordshire University (an ex-poly) they were very particular about the fact all their students used the Harvard style in all their work, there was normally even a small number of marks allocated to this!

However while at Manchester university as a postgraduate, they really don't care which you use and as a research student I have just gotten used to using whatever is normal for the discipline I am writing for.

Engineering papers differ from Computer Science papers which differ from Geology papers, things like that.

Really you just need to check with the university if they have a preferred style, and then I suggest you use some form of Bibliography software from the get go.

If you are likely to publishing using LaTeX then you will be using Bibtex anyway, but if you intend to mostly work in Word, it has a reasonable in-built referencing library function, or for a more generic solution, Endnote is a classic piece of software that has been used for a very long time by many academics. Costs a little bit of money (actually quite a bit of money..) but your department *may* have a license you can use as a student, but effectively you generate a database if your references by filling out as many fields as you possibly can, and it then outputs the entries in the referencing style that you wish. Having said that, Word 2007 and 2010 can both do something similar, albeit with less output style options.

I wouldn't worry too much about referencing :) Beyond undergrad level most academics are very non-plussed about it all and don't even think about it, as long as the references that ARE there can be easily followed.
 
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Oh, so this referencing software, you basically type in the author, name, title etc... and it just outputs all these details into the format you wish, such as Harvard referencing? Then you just copy and paste into the reference area of the assignment?
 
willhub said:
Oh, so this referencing software, you basically type in the author, name, title etc... and it just outputs all these details into the format you wish, such as Harvard referencing? Then you just copy and paste into the reference area of the assignment?
Click to expand...

Exactly.

I only noted Endnote as it's what everyone who doesn't use LaTeX seems to use.

It is pretty steep to buy it yourself though.

Word's inbuilt referencing function doesn't seem to have Harvard by default, however you may be able to add it.

EDIT: Here's some extra referencing styles for Word's in-built system: http://bibword.codeplex.com/releases/view/15852, if you intend to use Word 2007 or 2010 (as a student you can buy 2010 for about £40!)

Personally i do everything in LaTeX, which has its own built in Bibilography database in the form of Bibtex. Steep learning curve to LaTeX, but the quality of the documents you eventually produce, especially if they are for publication, surpasses almost everything. Having said that, I still draft in Word, there is something to be said for a standard DTP package for ease of use :)
 
End Note
Overview
EndNote is a reference management software package that enables you to store and manage the references that you find during your research. EndNote can also help you to create and format the in-text citations and bibliographic references in your word-processed documents. It is made by Thomson Scientific.

Hints and Tips
Teaching Centres EndNote is available to use on teaching centre computers. If it is not already installed when you log on then you can install it by going to navigating to Start | Install University Applications Select Bibliographic from the Category drop-down Select EndNote X3 - Install from the list and then click Run.

Training
EndNote Webinars Adept Scientific run regular 30 minute webinars providing a brief overview of some of the most widely used software features. These make a great, convenient way of introducing such tools to students and staff who are unfamiliar with the benefits of using EndNote. You can view the upcoming webinar schedule on the link below, all you need is an internet connection and a phone in order to dial in to listen to the instructor. http://www.adeptscience.co.uk/training/index.html?cat=online_seminars

Ref. Man 12
Reference Manager 12
Reference Manager is an online bibliographic search tool.

Overview
Reference Manager can be used to keep track of the books, journals and other sources that you have used to write essays.

Reference Manager is an online search tool - it provides a simple way to search online bibliographic databases and retrieve the references directly into Reference Manager (Reference Manager can also import data files saved from a variety of online services and library databases).
Reference Manager is a reference database — it specializes in storing, managing, and searching for bibliographic references in your personal reference database.
Reference Manager is a bibliography maker — it formats citations in Microsoft® Word or Corel® WordPerfect® with the Cite While You Write™ feature. Watch the reference list grow as you citations in your manuscript.

Hints and Tips
New in Version 12:

New Database Features - default to opening your database with Read-Write Exclusive access, rather than Read-Write Share access.
Easily transport file attachments with your database. Rather than attaching files to references with an absolute path to the file, you can copy the files to a common folder and use a relative path.
Quickly move to the previous or next reference in the Reference window with Previous and Next arrows.
Spell check a single reference or all references in your database.
Add to your Periodical term lists to standardise data entry or print journal abbreviations. In addition to Chemical, Humanity and Medical terms, import terms from Anthropology, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Bioscience, Economics, Law, Philosophy, Religion, and Zoological records.
Opt to ignore punctuation in author names when comparing possible duplicate references.
 
I'll try one of these referencing packages sometime see if I can get the hang of it.

Also another question, in uni, you get minimal lectures, then you get your "assignment", and that's it, you have to go away, complete it, and hand it in. So basically, as dumb as this sounds, you plan what you need to work on, then go looking in books, read about the subject, understand some of it, then of course, start typing it up.

Now some of it, do you basically rewrite some of the content you've found in a book, in your own words, and quote some of it?

What I've wrote sounds abit like....... what someone in high school would write lol, but I'm trying to gauge how doing uni work is different from college work.

I'm guessing it might be some of these points:

Uni assignments:

Longer
The subjects are harder
You need to write in massively more detail
And regulations on how you do things in assignments may perhaps be allot more strict?

I'm pretty scare of Uni, and if I will cope, so I'm trying to get an idea of these "basic" things.
 
Well, it will depend on the University (what institution are we talking about btw?), but Universities arn't as hands-off as they used to be.

The introduction of ex-poly's into the equation, who dont have a research background but wanted to be good places purely to teach, has forced the established Universities to offer more hands-on teaching, which can only be a good thing. Normally subjects will have 1 or 2 1-2 hour lectures per week and then some form of practical session where you can go along and get hands on help, though for less hands-on subjects, the arts, history, languages etc. this format may be slightly different.

As a first year undergraduate, the people teaching you will assume the lowest common denominator in terms of what they teach, they will expect all students to have reached the basic entry requirements, but no more, being fair they simply can't! Universities aren't naive, most people involved was a student themselves, they realise that the amount of work people will do in the first year will, in all likelihood, be.. minimal.

The first year is there for you to get to grips with being a young adult out in the world, get to grips with a more mature way of presenting yourself and work and to allow you to make lots of friends that you will hopefully stick with for the next 2 years and maybe even longer!

The way that you do your work will depend on the subject area you have chosen, but generally speaking an essay should be entirely your own work. Personally I have never been much of a book researcher, as a child of the internet, that's where I get most of my information. Of course as a postgrad researcher I read academic journals and papers (online :p).

So, for me, I would do the following:

1) Refine the essay title, work out what it actually means
2) write a quick bullet point design of the document, roughly defining how it will fit within the length requirements
3) Flesh out the bullet points a bit, define the context to go into each section
4) See if there are any seminal works that are expected to be referenced when writing about any of the subjects my bullet points have defined
5) just start writing, fill out the document bit by bit. Anywhere I make a statement that sounds like it needs backing up, I place a "REF" in the text.
6) I then go back and see if I already have a suitable reference in my database, if not, I go and find one (Google scholar is good here as is ScienceDirect if you have access or CiteSeerX)
7) Then I tidy up the draft, get friends and family to read it, read it aloud to myelf to find grammar problems
8) Done :)

Always remember though, as long as you ask well constructed and thought through questions, NOBODY will ever count being inquisitive against you. If you don't understand something, go away, work out exactly what you don't understand and why, and simply ask the question. The only people that fail are the ones who either don't really want to be there OR the ones who are struggling but don't pipe up.

Good luck, you'll love being a student, as a time, you can make it into exactly what you want it to be, for most people its the best time of their lives.
 
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willhub said:
I'll try one of these referencing packages sometime see if I can get the hang of it.

Also another question, in uni, you get minimal lectures, then you get your "assignment", and that's it, you have to go away, complete it, and hand it in. So basically, as dumb as this sounds, you plan what you need to work on, then go looking in books, read about the subject, understand some of it, then of course, start typing it up.

Now some of it, do you basically rewrite some of the content you've found in a book, in your own words, and quote some of it?

What I've wrote sounds abit like....... what someone in high school would write lol, but I'm trying to gauge how doing uni work is different from college work.

I'm guessing it might be some of these points:

Uni assignments:

Longer
The subjects are harder
You need to write in massively more detail
And regulations on how you do things in assignments may perhaps be allot more strict?

I'm pretty scare of Uni, and if I will cope, so I'm trying to get an idea of these "basic" things.
Click to expand...

I think you'll be surprised. You seem to have it in your head that there's a huge difference between A-Level and year 1 of under-grad, where as in reality the gap is much smaller than you'd think. Year 1 assignments (from my experience and what I remember my friends having to do) are usually there to guide you into the subject and start off pretty easy. Remember that each university will teach the same topic differently so they have to assume quite an average level of understanding to begin with.

What are you looking to study and where?
 
I don't have a mac.

I am doing a course at Salford Uni, manic_man.

I am starting in the second year, the reason being, I have had 2 years finance from SFE (Student Finance England), and I am only able to get 4 years.

So I have to start in the second year as SFE will not pay for the first at all. I have year 2, then placement year, then year 3.
 
willhub said:
I don't have a mac.

I am doing a course at Salford Uni, manic_man.

I am starting in the second year, the reason being, I have had 2 years finance from SFE (Student Finance England), and I am only able to get 4 years.

So I have to start in the second year as SFE will not pay for the first at all. I have year 2, then placement year, then year 3.
Click to expand...

If you are starting directly as a 2nd year, I would ask to see a transcript of the 1st years work, so that you know which areas you are expected to know and any you feel you don't, you can brush up on yourself.

Lecturers have to assume all their students know what was taught in the first year of the course, so this might be a stumbling block for you if you dont.

You should be able to get hold of a transcript through the schools student support office.
 
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