Referencing

Acknowledging Sources

To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit whenever you use another person’s work.
This means that whenever you use information obtained from another source including ideas, examples, theories or opinions, you must give a full reference to that source.

What do you have to acknowledge?

1. Direct quotations

A direct quotation means using another person’s exact words. When you use direct quotations, it is important to make clear to the reader that you have taken someone else’s exact words.
Acknowledging the source with a reference alone is not sufficient; you must also place the words in quotation marks (for shorter quotes) or indent paragraphs (for longer quotes).

For example:
According to Kramsch (1998: 10) foreign language teachers should ‘objectivize the learner’s native discourse patterns’.

Crozet & Liddicoat (1997: 18) argue:

The aim of language teaching is not to assimilate the learner into the native speaker community but rather to encourage them to adopt a position in which they are comfortable in dealing with native speakers and are able to achieve personal and communicative goals.

2. Paraphrases of another person’s words or ideas

A paraphrase is an indirect quotation and means rewriting someone else’s ideas in your own words. Plagiarism often results from students’ misguided belief that they only have to acknowledge someone else’s work when copying or quoting words directly from a text.
This is incorrect.
When you paraphrase, you must cite the source of the ideas (see examples in previous section).

Another common mistake made by students is partial paraphrasing – that is, changing only some of the words from the original. To paraphrase correctly, you must change and rewrite the original language completely, including the original sentence structure. If you retain even short phrases or distinctive words from the original text without enclosing these words in quotation marks, it is plagiarism.

Acceptable paraphrasing:

• Accurately relays the information in the original source using your own words
  
• Acknowledges the source of information
  
• Is incorporated in your discussion to add to or support your own ideas and argument.
  

3. Summaries of another person’s ideas.

A summary is also an indirect quotation, but is much shorter than the original text as it only includes the main points of the original author’s ideas or argument. To avoid plagiarism, you must cite the source whenever you summarise another person’s work.

4. Tables, figures, graphs, diagrams or images obtained from any source

When you copy or use information from any source, including information contained in tables, graphs, figures or diagrams, you must acknowledge the original source. This is also the case for images that you obtain.

5. Information obtained from lectures and personal communication

If you want to use information or an idea that you have obtained from a verbal discussion with someone or from your lectures, you have to acknowledge the source of the information in your work. Just because the other person’s work has not been published in print form, it does not mean that the ideas do not belong to that person. If you use another person’s ideas without acknowledgement, then you are plagiarising.

To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit whenever you use other peoples’ work including their ideas, arguments, theories and opinions.

What does NOT have to be acknowledged?

• Your own ideas, arguments, theories, images, diagrams, graphs or results from research
• Common knowledge – unless it is a direct quote from a specific source
  
• Facts available from various general reference books such as textbooks, dictionaries or encyclopaedias.

Statistics taken from these sources should still be cited, as this will increase the credibility of your information.

What is Common Knowledge?

Sometimes you do not need to acknowledge the source of your information.
For example, when a topic is part of what we assume to be general or ‘common knowledge’, or information that is in the public domain, you usually do not have to provide a reference.

For example, statements such as: Bob Hawke was Prime Minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991, or World War I began in 1914 and ended in 1918, are generally known information so you do not need to provide a reference even though you may not have known these facts before you started your research.

However, if you use the exact words of the reference source, you must place the words in quotation marks and acknowledge the source.

If you are not sure whether a particular point is considered to be common knowledge in your field, consult various general reference books. If you find the fact in more than one general reference book, you can consider it ‘common knowledge’.
Note that ‘common knowledge’ is limited to facts and does not include opinions or arguments that you could disagree with or argue against (Carroll, 2002: 53).

For example, compare the following two statements:

i) J.S. Bach was a famous composer during the Baroque period.
ii) J.S. Bach was the greatest composer of the Baroque period (Hong, 1977).

The first sentence is a fact that is commonly known by many people.
The second sentence is an opinion, which people can disagree with and therefore needs to be referenced.

Look at two more examples:

Example 1:

Comments:

In this example, a reference is not needed because the details that are given are general rather than specific, and they are details that are generally known – that is, common knowledge.

Example 2:

Comments:

In this example, a number of exact dates are given as well as details of the people involved (sentences 2, 4).
By providing reference information the reader knows that these are not just facts or figures for which you have no evidence. The reader (usually an examiner) can then check these references to ensure that details are correct. In sentence 3, the idea that JF Kennedy’s assassination was the most significant event in modern American History is not a fact but an interpretation or argument; consequently, it must be cited.
The last sentence does not need to be referenced because the facts are common knowledge.

By recognising that some facts are common knowledge, you can avoid filling up your page with unnecessary references. However, if in doubt, be cautious and cite the source