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Referencing advice and resources: About referencing

This guide will give you an overview of how to reference your college work correctly, and introduce you to some helpful resources.

This guide helps explain what referencing at the City of Glasgow College involves.

  • Click on the tabbed pages at the top to explore the different topics offered.
  • There are lots of links and resources for you to investigate at your own pace.
  • Remember help is available if you still have questions after reading this guide. Take a look at the Need more help tab to find out more.

About referencing: introduction

What does referencing at college mean for you?

When writing reports and essays for college, lecturers expect you to:

  • read widely on your topic, and to
  • make it clear which writers and sources have influenced your ideas and writing.

This is called referencing. It means giving information on your sources (citing) in your report or essay, then listing (referencing) those sources in a bibliography or reference list.

When you reference your college work, you:

  • strengthen your own writing by drawing on reliable sources and the respected opinions of experts
  • allow your reader to track down the sources you used, if your reader wants to read them too
  • give the sources you used proper credit 
  • may alert your reader to something they were unaware of
  • help to make your own writing and thoughts stand out from the sources you have used
  • avoid the risk of plagiarising

It's really important to provide enough information for a reader to track down your sources. Information gathered on the sources you cite is placed in a bibliography (or reference list) at the end of your work in a structured format.

Remember: both citing (in your essay or report) and referencing (in your bibliography) are equally important.

Library help videos

We have recorded some referencing videos to help de-mystify the basics of referencing.

Take a look at the CoGC Library website for short videos on referencing and research skills.

You can also see our range of videos through ClickView - use your college log in details to view them.

Library help videos

Watch our short introduction to what referencing and plagiarism are.

Our short video walks you through using this essential referencing resource.

How to use Zotero to manage the sources you find through research, while making referencing easier, too.

Doing research? Our short video helps you sort out the good search results from the not so good!