Referencing Problems: What do I do?

Your assignment comes back and you've failed. You have, the marker tells you, "referencing problems". You think, "No problem, I'll email the Skills Tutor and find out how to use Harvard style". This is a great idea but this isn't the whole problem. Allow me to guide you.

While I would strongly urge all students to use Harvard style, poor referencing is not about citations, it is about references. References inside your assignment link it to your readings on the assignment subject matter. When you do the assignment that the module tutor gives out, I suggest this paragraph format:

Paragraph Format
a) Topic sentence - First sentence to introduce any paragraph. This guides the reader through the same topic within this sentence.
b) References - The second sentences shows an example or quotation from an authority. For example: Johnston says in his 1919 article: "The best....."
c) Explanation this reference. Okay, what does Johnston say that is relevant to the subject you're writing about. Explain it. Use two sentences if you must, but explain why this is important. What does it say about the topic you're talking about.
d) Finish up and link it to the next paragraph.
Notice, this paragraph could be five sentences if necessary. One sentence is inadequate.

If you follow this model, you should never have referencing problems. What the module tutor wants is your opinion, backed up by evidence, not the opinion of someone else or diluted references to a number of internet sources. This is what causes referencing problems.

Referencing problems are really about NOT understanding that the use of any source materials inside your paper, without directly citing them, is a form of plagiarism. This includes any quickie materials you pick up from the Internet in a cursory search. The biggest problem with assignments that rely on quickie Internet searches is that they usually don't answer the assignment question. Instead, using a lot of material from a numbers of Internet sources, they skirt around the issue.

Writing using one citation for each paragraph, as in the model above, helps ensure that the citation is on topic. Citations that are not on topic have no place in your assignment and you should eliminate them. It is actually harder and more time consuming to write an assignment by stringing together citations from the Internet. It is easier to figure out what the assignment question is really asking and providing citations that are on topic.

It is also important that you note when a set of assignment questions is given in a particular order such as:

1. Pick out the main topic of the article you have been asked to find.
2a. What is the stated purpose of this research?
2b. What are any additional reasons the author might have for doing this research?

In this case, you should stick with the order of the questions provided in the module assignment. You don't have to restructure this assignment in any way. Answer all the questions in order, don't go off course and do something completely different. After all, why reinvent the wheel if you've been given a perfectly good one to use?

When you look at the assignment question(s), you should see a clear link between what you have written and the assignment question(s). Often, students have referencing problems because they did initial research to understand the question, for example on what SWOT analysis is, and then decided they didn't understand the actual assignment question. At this point, the lost student decides to use their research on the terminology of the question in the hope tta it will be enough to complete the assignment successfully. In fact, they are lost and should go to blackboard, the Module Tutor and the Skills Tutor to find out what to do now. They shouldn't write the thing they just looked up and which actually isn't the assignment in question.

An important point here. When you get an assignment back and the tutor has failed you and told you that you have a "referencing problem", don't revise your old assignment. Junk it and start again. It is likely that understanding the assignment is your first key and the old assignment is already compromised. Look at it from this perspective, if you've already been told that you have referencing problems do you really think the next marker won't comb through your assignment to ensure you've rectified this issue? Of course they will. To pass, you must fix this problem and do it right the first time. Why put yourself through this time and trouble? Do it right, do it once.
Until next time,
KB