Types of Reference Skills and 5 Ways to Improve your Referencing?

Back to: Pedagogy of English- Unit 5

Types of Reference Skills and 5 Ways to Improve your Referencing?

Reference skills refer to the practice acknowledging the intellectual work of others in your personal work. It enables readers to locate the original sources you have cited in your research work and hence, this allows them to access the material and information from the original source and understand the same as well. It also gives supporting evidence to the claims and specific facts you present in your text. 

Types of reference skills

The various types of reference skills are as follows: 

Work references

Work references include the people you have worked with. They may be your manager, colleague, supervisor, employer, employee, or someone else from the workplace. They can provide much insight into your work skills, experience, and performance as well as professional accomplishments. 

Academic References

Academic references refer to educational credentials or scholars whose work you cite in your research work. 

Character References

In the absence of academic and work references, you can also add character references which include your interests and hobbies. 

Ways to Improve your reference skills

The five ways in which you can improve your reference skills are as follows: 

Understand the topic

It is important to have a clear understanding of the topic so that you can cite properly. 

Avoid Plagiarism

Make sure you cite the work without any errors so that you can keep the work original and avoid plagiarism. 

Provide Evidence

Another important tip you can follow is to make sure you can support your work using the works and references you have cited.

Maintain Accuracy

It is also important to maintain accuracy while referencing and quote the cited work exactly without any alteration. 

Research Well

It is also important to research well and make sure you read the work you are quoting thoroughly so that you can gain a better understanding of your own topic. 

These are the various reasons why referencing skills can be highly important and significant. You can follow these tips to improve your referencing skills