The Fundamentals of Referencing
When talking about referencing, people are generally referring to two related concepts: citations and references. So, if your tutor says something like 'you need to work on your referencing', they are likely telling you that there is a problem with your citations and/or your references. But what are the differences between these two elements?
Citations
Citations appear in the body of your work—that’s why some people call them in-text citations (Pears and Shields, 2022, p. 20). If you have included a quotation from someone's work, then you need a citation to tell the person reading your work that you have done this. You also need to tell the person reading your work if you have incorporated another person's idea into your own: in other words, you have read someone else’s idea and then used your own words to express it.
References
References provide a detailed description of the citations. They will include elements like titles, year of publication, place of publication, and publisher—this is called bibliographic information. The information that you need to include in a reference differs from a citation. References usually appear as a list (Pears and Shields, 2002, p. 34).
Referencing Styles
Different disciplines require you to reference—i.e. use citations and references—in different ways. These different ways of referencing are called referencing styles (Cottrell, 2019, p. 251).
Styles dictate the way that citations appear. In some styles, citations appear as a number. These are called numeric styles. In other styles, citations appear as an author's name following by a date; these are called author-date styles.
Styles also dictate the way that your references appear, using things like commas, italics, brackets, and full stops. Some styles prefer references at the end of your work in an alphabetical list; some prefer them as a list of numbered footnotes at the end of each page of a Word document and which are then included in a bibliography.
Common Referencing Styles
Here are some very common referencing styles; some are numeric and some are author-date:
Harvard (author-date) – used in Arts, Humanities, and Education
MHRA (numeric) (Modern Humanities Research Association) - used in the Humanities, common in History
OSCOLA (numeric) (Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities) - exclusively used in Law
APA (author-date) (American Psychological Association) - used in Healthcare and Nursing
ALWAYS REMEMBER: The most important thing that you can do before starting to write your assessed work is to check which style your tutors are expecting you to use. Your module handbook will probably tell you this, but it's always best to ask directly, as some tutors may have their own unique preferences.
References
Cottrell, S. (2019) The Study Skills Handbook. 5th edn. London: MacMillan.
McMillan, K. (2021) Study Skills Book: Your Essential Guide to University Success. 4th edn. London: Pearson.
Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2022) Cite Them Right: The Essential Referencing Guide. 12th edn. Available at: https://derby.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44DERBY_INST/1r0lf79/alma991002263385907416 (Accessed: 23 June 2025).