Referencing and plagiarism are two big hurdles for any student with homework or essays due like an EPQ, and can cause many students to worry about getting it right. It can often be the last thing on a checklist alongside a conclusion that we worry about. Since developing my skills for writing essays, I have found starting with references and focusing on them throughout an essay can be invaluable and save a lot of time. In this blog post I have included 5 tips and techniques that I have used to help me when learning to reference and avoid plagiarism.
1. Organising references within an essay plan
When writing an essay, it can be easy to start reading multiple papers and trying to reference them in your essay all at once. This can sometimes make the task of writing the essay seem more difficult and confusing. I have found that briefly specifying what each section of the essay will be about helps me find the most relevant and useful references. Once I have finished typing or writing up notes on a source, I will add them with the reference link to the specific section of my essay planner. This allows me to keep on track of the large amounts of information.
2. Finding more related and useful resources
Reading multiple papers and texts can often lead you to many other sources of additional information. These can provide a stronger foundation for further reading and ultimately help with an essay or piece of work. To find the most useful additional sources I have found highlighting key words, theories, or related studies from the original source allows me to keep on the right track for the question. For example, as a biology student, understanding bodily processes can be challenging so I will try and look for the role of key molecules to help explain the content better.
3. What style and how to add references in your work
Different subjects at school and an EPQ might use different types of referencing styles. It is important you understand what style to use as this will affect your in-text citations and bibliography. A technique that allowed me to reference quickly was creating a template for the referencing system my school used for different sources such as journals or websites. For projects such as EPQ, it is best to ask your teacher or supervisor for additional advice. There are also certain websites that can explain how to reference and can provide you with examples.
4. Remembering references for an exam
Some exams across many A-Levels may ask you to write an essay in an exam hall under timed conditions. To many this can be a daunting prospect and cause stress days, weeks, or months in advance. It is common for teachers to ask you to remember references so that you can use them in your essays. A technique many of my friends and I practised, all studying different A-Levels, was creating a bank of references that covered the whole unit and applied them to mock questions. Sometimes there will be references that can cover a few topics in the unit, but some can be very specific. When a unit has as many as 12 different sections it can be overwhelming, so another process is choosing 3-4 topics to know in the most detail. This technique also helps in remembering small details that might come up in a multiple-choice section of an exam too.
5. Understanding plagiarism
Especially when reading about complex topics and processes, it can be a struggle to think how to rephrase and use the information you’ve read. A technique I have used to avoid plagiarism is writing down all the key information as key words. With a small break in between I will then phrase the topic or process in my own words. Once this is complete, I will compare my sentences to the paper to make sure I haven’t copied or used their phrasing.
Hopefully these tips I have shared help you and give you a place to start and you are able to adapt them to suit your best way of working at A-Level. It is important not to worry about getting it right straight away and understand everyone will be new to this skill.
Written by Tom, a BSc Biology student
