The First Year Experience: A Guide To Referencing

The First Year Experience: How to Reference

by: Joshua Newton.

For first year university students, referencing is an important skill to have. Without referencing your sources for any of your assessments you can be accused of plagiarism which is a crime and no one wants to deal with going to court and fighting the legal system am I right? Referencing is probably the most important thing that you will need at university for all work that you do.

So for referencing there are many different styles to use, the most common one is Harvard referencing and one you’ve learnt how to use this system you’ll never go back as it can be the easiest thing to learn and to use. By accessing the Melbourne Polytechnic Library page, you can use the ERNI referencing system which is the best guide to use for referencing and has many referencing systems, the two most common ones are Harvard and APA referencing. (Though APA is mainly used for medical and psychological works so I wouldn’t bother using that one unless you’re doing a medical/scientific course). The right referencing style that is suited to you may be different to the one that your lecturer/professor suggests you to use and so you can lose marks for using the wrong referencing system so I’d stick to the one that your lecturer/professor wants you to use (which for most topics/courses is Harvard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG0Rgwcw8k8- I found this YouTube clip helpful because it gives you a step by step guide on how to reference at university level and mainly the Harvard style of referencing your work which is a vital part of your university article.

https://student.unsw.edu.au/why-referencing-important- here is an article that I found quite useful for finding out why referencing is an important part of university and how it relates top your work. Without referencing, your work can be considered invalid and will not be graded which can lead to you failing the assessment and possibly the course (which no one wants). This is why ERNI is good because it lists all the types of sources you can use and the style in which you want to reference, the guide that ERNI provides is possible the best thing you can find on the Melbourne Polytechnic Library page and the best friend you can make at Melbourne polytechnic. The best thing about university is that you can go to any university library and look at their guides without being a student at that university. Depending on what university you’re attending the referencing systems may be different but with ERNI it makes it easy to use.

How to use ERNI

Step 1: Google the Melbourne Polytechnic Library webpage and click on the ERNI referencing guide.

Step 2: Click on the reference style section and click on the reference style you wish to use.

Step 3: Once you’ve selected your referencing style, select what type o0f source it is that you want to reference.

Step 4: Follow the guide that ERNI supplies and all you need to do is put in the information from your source as followed by the guide.

It’s that simple.