Referencing + Citation

During your course at IADT, you will be asked to produce written assignments. In those assignments, you will need to refer back to the work of others. Doing this is called citing and referencing.

This work can be articles, websites, books, films, art, and any other material produced by someone else that you have used in your assignment. It is important to be consistent and accurate in your references to allow the person reading your assignment to identify and locate the material you have used. Following the same set of rules, known as a referencing style, every time you cite a source helps you to do this.

When you reference a source, you will create in-text citations, which appear in the body of your writing, and a reference list (or bibliography), which is a list at the end of your assignment of all the sources you referred to.

At IADT, the main referencing styles are:

• APA
• Chicago
• Harvard
• MLA
• MHRA.

If you are unsure which style to use, always check with your lecturer or tutor.

There are several reasons why referencing is important in academic writing. Referencing properly: 

• Helps you avoid plagiarism by making clear which ideas are yours and which belong to someone else. 
• Shows you understand the topic or research area.
• Gives evidence of what you are saying in your writing, and can support the argument yu are making. .
• Gives evidence that you have researched your topic properly. 
• Allows others to see what sources you used and to check them firsthand. 

Source: Maynooth University Library

Academic integrity is the practice of being honest and forthright in your academic writing. Essentially this means always giving credit to your sources and not claiming work as your own when it has been taken from someone else. This applies to individual assignments, as well as in group tasks. It applies to not only written material but to multimedia sources also.

You can attain academic integrity by citing fully and correctly, by providing reference lists, and avoiding plagiarism as a whole. 

Image source: Sabancı University

When researching and writing your essay, there are some steps you can follow. 

1. Find references and sources that help you make your case.
2. Save all your references in one place or folder.
3. Know what referencing style you have to use and format your references in that style.
4. Check all your references against examples in your course handbook before you submit your essay.

There are two main ways to use references within your writing.

1. You can make an argument and bring in references to support that argument. 
2. Bring references into your essay and then offer an analysis of them.

References should not be passed off as your own work. That is considered plagiarism. Here is some information on plagiarism and how to avoid it.

Source: Maynooth University Library

Citing: referring to sources you quote or paraphrase within your document. You should always cite the sources you use in your work. This brief citation refers the reader to the exact place in your reference list or bibliography where you will provide the extended details of the source. 

Reference list: usually placed at the end of your assignment. It is the detailed list of sources that have been cited within the text. Every reference must have enough information for the reader to find the source again. This is only sourced that have actually been cited. 

Bibliography: a list of all references consulted in preparing the document, whether you cited them in your assignment or not.  It can also include titles useful as background reading.

 Source NUI Galway & University of Limerick

Our past theses collection is available online HERE with your IADT login. 

The majority of referencing and citation examples in this guide are sourced from UCD Library. UCD Library's full referencing guides can be found here.