Referencing n Coursework: A Guide to the Harvard System
[Written by Dr Brahim Herbane – Department of Strategy and Management]
• Do you want to show your lecturer how well you’ve understood a topic by integrating all of your sources clearly?
• Do you want to earn more marks by excelling in the production of University assignments?
• Do you want to avoid accidental plagiarism?
As you research and write a piece of coursework, you will rely on information ideas and facts of others to support, evidence and illustrate your work. In so doing you must acknowledge these sources by using a system of referencing within your work. Otherwise you will face the risk of a charge of plagiarism (which is defined by the university as the significant use by a student of other people's work and the submission of it as though it were his or her own). The Harvard system is the most popular referencing system used in Business Schools and is explained in this guide.
Referencing is not a chore or burden, it is a way of acknowledging the sources that you have used and demonstrates that your learning skills/personal information management skills are well developed. This is fundamental to almost any piece of work that you undertake at University. Referencing is not simply about reference lists. Referencing is a feature of projects and essays that has two components. The first is referencing within the text at the point where you use information from another source, and the second in the reference list/bibliography at the end of your work. The two are interconnected. Without the other, each component is of limited value, and therefore each one needs equal attention.
Referencing comprising of ...