What is Referencing?
During your studies you will need to find information on the topic(s) you have been asked to research and write about.
Much of the material you find will have been researched and written, or created, by someone other than yourself. Referring to material from books, articles, websites, reports, performances, films, and artworks are just some examples of materials that would require you to provide accurate referencing.
Referencing is the standardised system you must use to acknowledge your use of other people’s work in your assignments. The college uses a system known as Harvard Referencing, which is widely used across other colleges and universities in Scotland.
Read on to find out about the resources, tools, and support available to help you.
Why do I need to reference?
Referencing is one important aspect of developing good academic practice, and an essential skill to learn at college.
By referencing correctly within your work you are:
- Acknowledging the author/creator of the material you have decided to use
- Demonstrating the breadth of research you have carried out
- Highlighting the importance of a particular point of view/argument
- Supporting a theory or argument through research
- Allowing the reader of your assignment to easily locate the material you have used
What is plagiarism?
Using the work or ideas of other people without acknowledging where you have found the information is called plagiarism and can be seen as a form of theft, something that can be taken very seriously.
Plagiarism happens when a student submits an assignment that contains work that is not their own, without acknowledging their sources in the form of references.
Therefore, it is important to understand how to reference correctly and acknowledge all the sources you have used within your work.
How do I use Turnitin?
Edinburgh College uses Turnitin, an originality checking and on-line marking system, used by over 15,000 educational institutions in 150 countries, over 30 million registered users. Turnitin detects possible instances of plagiarism and enables lecturers to leave effective feedback online.
Find information on submitting work to Turnitin on Moodle by following the link below.
Turnitin’s AI Detection Tool
AI writing tools are software programs powered by artificial intelligence that can generate human-like text in seconds. While these tools may seem convenient, using them to complete assignments may violate college’s academic integrity policy and undermine your learning process. To ensure fairness and promote authentic learning, we are introducing a new Turnitin AI detection tool. This tool will analyse submitted work to identify text that may have been generated by AI.
What does this mean for you?
Always check with your lecturer before you use an AI assistant for any academic task.
If the AI tools are not allowed by your lecturer, please be aware that:
- when you submit your essay to Turnitin, the AI detection tool will analyse your work to identify potential AI-generated text
- your teacher will see the results and contact you if your work has been flagged as AI-generated
- remember, no tool is perfect, and there may be instances of AI incorrectly recognises your own work as AI generated. If your work is flagged, you’ll have the chance to clarify it with your teacher.
Is there support online?
Yes, here we highlight two platforms to support your learning. Our course, called Referencing at Edinburgh College and the Cite The Right website and tutorial.
Whilst there are a number of other online tools and apps to help you reference correctly and avoid plagiarism within your writing we recommend using a combination of the online support tutorials below as they will not provide conflicting information and will work when used together. We suggest starting with our introductory course, Referencing at Edinburgh College (approximately 30 mins), then moving on to the Cite Them Right website where you can find their information and tutorial when you are ready for more extensive learning.
Referencing at Edinburgh College
Our online course (approximately 30mins) provides a simple introduction to referencing and plagiarism using the Harvard system of referencing. If you are new to referencing this is the ideal place to start. We provide introductory guidance on what referencing is, why you need to reference, and how to correctly reference some of the most common sources in your assignments.
Sections have short activities that you can undertake to test your own understanding of the topics you have read about.
Updated for 24/25 to include AI.
Cite Them Right: Support
This is a comprehensive guide to referencing and plagiarism. Cite Them Right provides full guidance on how to correctly reference all sources in your assignments, with guidance available on Harvard and numerous other styles of referencing.
You can use Cite The Right to help format references, look up answers to your referencing questions, support with paraphrasing and summarising from sources, and follow an in depth tutorial to test your knowledge and learn even more.
Updated for 24/25 to include AI.
Downloadable Guide
This is a double-sided A4 sheet that you can print and take away with you for some of the more common sources you may need to reference. Please be aware that this is most easily understood after completing our Referencing at Edinburgh College course (approximately 30 mins).
