Referencing
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What is Referencing?
Why is Referencing important?
Academic Integrity
NTI Harvard Referencing Style
What is Referencing?
Referencing is used to tell the reader where an idea or piece of information has come from. University assessments require you to conduct research and bring together what you have found. Your references are a map to show the sources you used for your research.
Why is Referencing important?
There are two key reasons referencing is essential in academic writing.
1. Give credit to the original research
Research will help you discover the existing ideas, studies and theories of other scholars in a particular field. When writing your own assessment, it is important to acknowledge where the ideas you use were found. Referencing gives credit to the scholars who’s research you use and ensures you do not take credit for an idea that belong to somebody else. It is important that a reader can clearly see where you have found the information.
Additionally, references also act as a guide for anyone who is interested in reading more on a topic. Just as the reference list at the end of a journal article can point you towards more relevant research, the references in your own assessment can lead the reader to other sources on the topics you have discussed.
2. Evidence to support your argument
In order to make an argument, you require evidence to back it up. The references in your assessment are your evidence. They prove that you have done the necessary research and are aware of what other scholars have said.
In academic writing, evidence is the key to your credibility. Without references, there is no way to know if the information in your assessment is reliable or even accurate.
References also indicate the level of research behind your work. If there is only one source in the reference list at the end of your essay, this shows you have not researched thoroughly or read widely. To gain credibility, you must prove the breadth of your research.
NTI Harvard Referencing Style
NTI students are expected to format their references according to the NTI Harvard style.
Referencing Guide
Use this guide to format your in-text citations and references.
Academic Integrity
Academic Integrity upholds the values of honestly, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility, and all students are expected to demonstrate these values while studying at NTI. Your commitment to behaving honestly and ethically in an academic setting is essential to building a successful academic community amongst your peers and lecturers.
You can put your academic integrity into practice by:
- Acknowledging ideas and information with accurate in-text citations and references
- Following copyright guidance when using information for your study
- Not presenting someone else’s work as your own, whether it be a published author or your classmate
- Conducting research ethically
Watch this video from RMIT University to learn about the importance of academic integrity in an academic environment like NTI.
A failure to act with academic integrity is known as “academic misconduct.” Examples of academic misconduct include:
Plagiarism
Plagiarism occurs when you present someone else’s work or ideas as your own without properly acknowgedging or referencing the source. This can include:
- Using information from a source without appropriate referencing
- Copy and pasting information from another source without using quotation marks
- Changing a few words in a sentence but leaving the rest the same without acknowledgment or referencing
- Self-plagiarism, which is reusing your own work from a previous assessment
To avoid plagiarism:
- Always reference your sources (See: NTI Harvard referencing guide)
- Understand the difference between quoting, paraphrasing and summarising and when each is appropriate
- Use your Turnitin Similarity Report to identify areas in your assessment that can be improved (for more help with Turnitin and submitting assessments visit the Assessment Support guide in NTiLearn)
Read NTI’s Academic Integrity Policy to understand your responsibilities as a student at NTI, and the consequences for academic misconduct.
Collusion
Collusion occurs when students work together to complete an assessment instead of completing the assessment themselves. This is different from group assessments, where students are required to work together and equally contribute. Examples of collusion can include:
- Sharing quiz answers with classmates
- When two or more students write an assessment together and change a few words so that they are not exactly the same
Instances of collusion result in all involved students being penalised.
Cheating
Cheating can simply be copying a classmate’s work or accessing the answers to an assessment without permission. However, contract cheating is an increasing problem and involved asking or paying someone to complete your work for you. This can include having someone write your essay, or purchasing a pre-written essay from an online service.
It is becoming easier for teachers to identify forms of cheating, either by recognising that a piece of work is not of the same standard a student has previously submitted, or through Turnitin’s Similarity Report, which matches the content of an assessment with other online sources and submissions from other students.
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