Some of the information, figures and graphics included below were sourced from Referencing Handbook for the Further Education and Training (FET) Sector published in 2019. This handbook was developed by the Further Education Support Services (FESS) and Education Training Boards Ireland (ETBI). A copy of this full handbook is available on Moodle under 'Academic Support' - 'Research and Harvard Referencing'.

How can I avoid plagiarism?

In order to avoid plagiarism, you must give credit by saying whose idea or work it was and where you got it from.

As a learner you will have to undertake some research in order to be able to write your assessment work. You will find that it is almost impossible to come up with completely new ideas. Many of the ideas, arguments and other facts and figures that you will use in your written work will be based on other people’s work.  

A good rule of thumb is to reference anything that you did not know previously.

The amount of information available can be overwhelming, particularly when you're just starting your research. 

There is so much information available – in books, in the media, and especially on the internet. However, not all information is reliable, and for academic writing you need to be confident that your sources are credible and that the information is of a high quality. 

As the writer, you will want to support your arguments and statements with accurate figures, and relevant, up-to-date information and ideas, all from reputable sources. Learning how to evaluate information sources is a key skill for writing your assessments (Dublin Institute of Technology, 2018; Dundalk Institute of Technology, 2016). 

What is citation or in-text citation?

Citing, citation and in-text citation are all terms used for referring to another source of information used in your written assignment work to support a point or argument that you are trying to make. 

You might refer by quoting, paraphrasing or summarising. Whichever way you choose to refer to this other source of information, you make your citation by including short details of the source: 

author’s surname, the date of publication and for quotes, the page number(s)

Every time you refer to this source in your written work, you must cite it. There are different ways of citing which will depend on whether you are paraphrasing, summarising or quoting the source. 

Citing when paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is when you take an author’s information, idea or suggestion and put it into your own words. You are still copying someone’s work so you must reference it. 

You don't need to use quotation marks ('....' or "....") when you paraphrase, but you need to show the reader the original source of your information. You must be very careful to indicate which part of your writing is a paraphrase of the original source so that the reader is clear on the source used. These are examples of paraphrasing parts of the extract: 

Citing when summarising

Summarising is providing a short summary/recap of the main points of a piece of work. This is a way of referring to someone else’s information, idea or suggestion without using direct quotations. You still need to cite and reference the source. This is an example of summarising what is said in the extract: 

Citing when quoting

Quoting is when you take the exact words that someone else used and insert them into your own work. You need to use quotation marks (“ ”) to show the quotation, and you must include the page number of the source where there is one. 

The reason for using quotes is to strengthen the point you are making. Be advised, that it's good practice to not over use quotations and you should only use a large chunk of text if you have a good reason for it. 

There are two ways of quoting depending on whether you use a short quote or a longer quote. 

Short quotations 

Short quotations are generally one word to two/three lines of text. In addition to the author’s name and the year of publication, you need to include the page number(s) so that readers can easily look up the source if they wish to check it or do further reading. Below is an example of citing with a short quotation: 

Longer quotes 

Longer direct quotations are generally two/three lines of text or more. You need to make a longer quotation stand out by indenting it and making it single-line spaced. You will still need to use quotation marks (“ ”) and include the author’s name, the year of publication, and the page number(s). Here is an example of a longer quote within a text: 

Referring to work that was cited in another source you have read

When you refer to something that was cited in one of your sources but you didn’t read or see the original, this is called a secondary reference. This is common where a text book cites the work of the major authors in this area and you want to cite the book but not the original publication. 

The original publication is called the primary source. It could also be the case that the original source is not available and so you have to rely on a secondary reference. You should cite both the primary source and the source you have read. Both works should appear in the reference list. Here is an example of how you would cite a secondary reference within your writing:   

You should try to locate the original reference and use secondary references only if you find it difficult to access the original work. This is because in a secondary reference you are seeing the original author’s work from someone else’s perspective.