What is the role of academic referencing?

During the discussion that was posted on July 14, 2014

Integrity is key to one’s ability to maintain credibility in their chosen profession. Understanding that academic integrity inherently requires one to credit original authors for their contributions and effort, and only take credit for their own original work. What is the role of academic referencing in the university setting, and why is it important to instill best practices such as APA referencing in students as they move forward with their academic writing? How does proper referencing alleviate the issue of plagiarism in academic work?

In response to the questions:

   The main role of academic referencing is to acknowledge the contribution of other authors in my work. It is very important to acknowledge it because many authors spend years and years on researching to put down those words on that paper. If we just use them without saying anything it is same as stealing, stealing somebody else’s effort. That is why the proper referencing is needed and needed to be taught properly in the university to become fully aware of the importance and get familiar with it so it can be used properly in the professional field.  Also by citing and including references your argument becomes more persuasive as the statement is supported by the expert’s work.

   It is absolutely important to instill best practices such as APA referencing in university because we need to get used to the proper referencing before going to the real professional field. Proper referencing is extremely import in one’s essay because when we use someone’s idea or quotation, we have to make sure that the readers can trace the source of that information. Proper writing such as APA referencing is widely used method and that’s why we should become familiar using APA style. 

   I strongly believe that proper referencing is the only way to effectively alleviate the issue of plagiarism in academic work. In academic field, stating someone else’s idea in your own work is allowed as long as the source is acknowledged correctly. When the proper referencing is used, it is another way to show gratitude towards the author or researcher which will make us be more aware of the meaning of the academic honesty and integrity.  

References:

University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia

“Plagiarism” https://student.unsw.edu.au/plagiarism

Peer reviews:

In response to Abi who stated that, "...Academic writers need to support their arguments with evidence, and readers of academic writing need to evaluate the validity of that evidence."

-Abi

I couldn’t have agreed more with your statement about referencing. I haven’t thought of it but evidence is a good word to describe it all. It is not only the writer’s role to show the evidence but it is a reader’s role (or responsibility, if reader likes the literature and decides to use it as a reference) to “finalize” the work by validating its evidence.

-Chris

In response to Gurpreet who stated that, "... By citing the work of the author you are acknowledging and respecting the rights of that scholar. According to author Bowker (2007) “Citing the work of other authors is central to academic writing because it shows you have read the literature, understood the ideas, and have integrated these issues and varying perspectives into the assignment task”. " -Gurpreet

It is absolutely true that citing not only serves the reference purpose for readers to trace the source but also it is an indication that the writer have read and well understood the subject of other authors work. It comes to me very clear by reading your citation. I think it is one’s ability to make such a statement so clear and write them down as sentences so it makes readers to understand the idea clearly. And that is the whole purpose of writing.

-Chris