In terms of student annoyances, referencing perhaps comes high on the list, just behind word counts. And although it might feel like another irrelevant aspect of assignment writing, referencing does play an important role, well three roles in fact.

1. Prevents claims of plagiarism

This is technically the reason you are required to reference. In the course of writing your assignment you will have conducted a certain amount of research using books, journals and online sources. In your response you will make use of these sources either directly, by using of wording direct from the source, and indirectly, by the way of informing your explanation, approach, argument or analysis. The role of referencing is therefore to identify when a source has been part of what you’ve written and if you don’t do it you may be guilty of plagiarism (copying!).

To explain this from the point of view of an assessor… when I read a section of text that doesn’t contain any references, I ask “where did they get this from?” Or “what sources have informed what they are saying?” Whilst some of it may be your own original thoughts you need to make clear where the other content is from.

2. Adds credibility

Now any accusations of cheating are out of the way, this second point is the reason I like to see referencing. By making use of well-placed references you can add a great deal of credibility, strength and persuasion to whatever point you want to make.

Imagine you want to make an argument for a particular course of action. Yes, you can build a strong business case by outlining the current issues and how your recommended solution will address these, in your own words, but citing what prominent academics have written on the topic (based on extensive research) or examples of organisations that have encountered similar situations and taken action will add a great deal of weight. In other words, making use of references says “it’s not just me that thinks this, all these other people do!”.

A point I need to make here is that this underlines the importance of using credible sources.

3. Demonstrates research and other professional skills

This third area is a bit of a side bonus, but it becomes more relevant the higher the level of qualification you are studying. In fact, the CIPD advanced level qualifications expect a post graduate standard of writing and research. Certainly, making effective use of credible sources demonstrates your ability to carry out secondary research and discern what is relevant and valuable, from the huge amount of sources now available.

I hope I’ve made the case for why referencing is important. As to how to do it, there’s not enough space to do that here. Don’t worry about getting it perfect, just try your best!