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Whether you create your references manually, or using a software package, you need to check carefully that your reference list is correctly formatted, and includes all the required information. The final responsibility for what is handed in lies with you.
There are a number of tools that you can use to help you reference.
MS Word 2007
Information on using the referencing tab on MS Word 2007 is provided in a separate box.
Other options
There are a number of open source tools available for managing references, but these cannot generally be loaded onto Institute computers. You may wish to investigate these further for use on your home computer, or laptop.
You need to provide references any time that you use information from anyone else's material in your work. This applies whether you use information from a book, magazine, website, email, conversation or any other source. It also applies whether you are using exact quotations from this material , or if you put the information into your own words.
You need to reference to show your teacher that you have used high quality information, not just something that you have made up, or guessed. You also need to reference to acknowledge the work of others. Not acknowledging of the work of others, is called plagiarism. Plagiarism can get you into trouble with your teacher, teaching centre, or the law.
There are many different referencing styles in use around the world, but they all consist of two main components:
No matter which referencing style you are using , the most important thing is to clearly identify all the sources of information that you have used in your work.
Microsoft Word 2007
The referencing tab on Microsoft Word 2007 can help you with creating references. It will keep a master file of all the sources that you have entered, and help you to create both an in-text citation, and a bibliography. Information is entrered manually to create each reference.
If you are using IEEE referencing style, you will first have to down load an IEEE plug in, such as BibWords IEEE – Reference Order from http://bibword.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=19764 When you have done this, open Word, and IEEE style should be available as a referencing option.
To add an in-text citation, click the References tab in Word, select IEEE (or whatever style you are using) as the Style to use, then Insert Citation. You can either add all the details for the reference (recommended) by clicking Add new source or insert a new place holder and add the referencing details later. If you select Add new source, simply select the type of resource that you are using, and enter the details into each of the fields. Click OK when you are completed, and Word will insert the in-text citation (i.e. [1]).
To create the reference list at the end of the assignment, just click on Bibliography and then select the first choice of format.
You can update reference details by clicking Manage Sources and then selecting the reference that you want to edit. To change these details in the reference list in your assignment, go to the bibliography where it appears in your assignment, and click on it. Then select Update citations and bibliography.
Things to be aware of
Please note the following when using MS Word for IEEE referencing:
· The IEEE plug will need to be downloaded on each computer that you use.
· Word does save a master list of sources allowing you to use your sources in more than one assignment, however for this to work, you would need to save your documents to a single location (i.e. a single computer or USB)
· Make sure that you check your typing. The system will not pick up errors or omissions in what is entered. Similarly, when entering names, the bibliography will show the name in the format that you enter it in. To have the correct IEEE format of (e.g.) T H Woods, that is what you should enter in the name field.