Referencing is a way to record (make a list of) the different resources you have used in an assignment or project. There is a particular way of writing this list so that they all look the same and contain the same, important information.
Keeping a list in this way acknowledges the original creator of the work and allows the reader to find the information in its original form.
You will be expected to reference your work in this way in secondary school and if you go to university. Reference lists are sometimes called BIBLIOGRAPHIES or WORKS CITED.
At UWCSEA the style that we use to write our reference lists is called MLA. It just means that we write the information in a certain order with certain punctuation. The resources are listed alphabetically. When you have all of your items in the list you just export to copy and paste and copy and paste the list at the end of your project. Each resource listed is called a citation. See the example below.
Works cited.
Example of citation for a website:
Elephant Nature Park, www.elephantnaturepark.org/. Accessed 2 Mar. 2017.
Example of citation for an online database:
"Elephant SPLASH." National Geographic Little Kids, vol. 2016, no. 56, p. 6, EBSCOhost, . search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=prh&AN=114897744&site=ehost-live. Accessed 3 Mar. 2017.
Example of citation for a book:
Hall, Kirsten. African Elephant: The World's Biggest Land Mammal. Bearport Pub, 2007.
Have a look at what Tim and Moby have to say about bibliographies.
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There are lots of different online tools to make keeping a bibliography easy for you. These tools will take care of the punctuation and remind you what information you need to include. Look at this page to learn where to look for the information you need
CiteFast is one of these tools.
Unfortunately, CiteFast doesn't have a feature that lets you collaborate with your friends and we know that sometimes this is important. At UWCSEA we are really lucky to have 2 email addresses available to us so, if you are working in a group, perhaps one of you can create an account using your email with GAPPS in it (e.g. smith12325@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg) and a very simple password and while you are collaborating you can all use the same CiteFast account. You can share your login and password with your teacher too. If you want a personal account just sign up for an account without the GAPPS (e.g. smith12325@uwcsea.edu.sg)
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