What Are Common Mistakes In Referencing Academic Work?

Here in this article, we will explain the Common Citation or referencing Mistakes and every need to know How to ensure you avoid these mistakes. This article is very useful for students who are preparing for assignments, essays or other academic work. It is compulsory to use referencing or citation in every academic work to avoid academic misconduct problem. But sometimes students don't have proper idea how to make proper referencing and how to use citation in assignment and due to such small issues they got failed grade in entire assignment. So everyone need to know how to deal with referencing and how to make proper citations in academic writing or assignment work?

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Learn about the silly mistakes that students make while writing their academic assignments or papers!

Here we will explain the 10 Common Citation Mistakes or Common Citation Errors, every need to know these referencing mistakes that might be cause of scoring low or failed, 

Missing References or Citations: might be cause of failing assignment so student has to take care of it. One of the most common mistakes made by student is missing references or citations. First of all, these citations and references are dealt like a package. A citation within the text requires having a reference in your reference page or it should have bibliography and vice versa. Hence, some students forget to cite the text in the academic paper or make a listing of reference for an in-text citation. There is some way easy to avoid this citation faux pas which is tool to check that every in-text citation represents to a reference in your paper. 

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Example:- 

For example, an in-text citation within your paper likes:

She stated, “Adding a reference listing for in-text citations can be hard” (Smith 5).

Should also have a citation in your Works Cited in MLA like:

Smith, Darla. Understanding MLA Style. Oxford UP, 2019.

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Using et al. in a wrong way: Do you know when et al. is being used and what does it mean? Basically it is used to cite more than three authors in an article because mentioning them all in the same would be a cumbersome process. It will make the reference look lengthy and messy too. One cannot comprehend it easily. Et al. in a reference means "and others". It should always be written in italics with a full stop at the end.

Always use citations while studying in your school. Though in majority of cases it is not required at school level but still practicing it at the earliest would make you perfect or semi-accurate when you will move for your college studies. 

Numbering of references (Citations with Alphabetical Order): Usually students do provide numbers to the references listed as they wish. But this should not be so. References are always arranged in an alphabetical order. For example if you are writing a reference in APA format all of them must be arranged alphabetically according to the first initial of surname of first author. In case many references have same initials then they must be arranged chronologically as per the year of publication with recent to the first and then others trailing downwards. 

Page numbers: Though this is not a essential part but still mentioning the page number of the article from where the exact information has been retrieved is a good idea. In case a reviewer wants to have a check it will be very easy for him to cite the acknowledged source and your work will be appreciable.

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Not citing if paraphrasing: Some students paraphrase their academic work and still not cite the source. In this case, one will be or may be accused of plagiarism. That is why, it is always said to cite ever information which is not yours.

Information sources: Resources are not all created equal. This is a crucial idea for both professionals and students. Make sure the sources you utilize to write your papers are up to date, pertinent, authoritative, correct, and serving a useful purpose. Using outdated information that might be true would not be appropriate and right according to the existing current situation. So be wise and smart while choosing your information sources.

Correlation between citation and references: Before establishing a correlation between both of them firstly we must know about the two correctly that implies citations are mentioned in the body part of the paper and references are needed to be mentioned at the end with a full thorough list. But sometimes our references do not match accurately with the citations. This is because either some citations or references may be missing. In first case, in order to provide a lengthy list of references a student usually adds unreferable links to the list which are not being cited. In the latter, one may accidentally or intentionally misses some part to acknowledge at the end of the paper while being cited at the central body.

Referencing style: Another common mistake prevailing is though students know that they must cite or reference the information source but are unaware about different styles of citation. As they do mix various referencing styles such as Harvard, Vancouver, APA, MLA etc.

Punctuation: Every referencing style be it APA, MLA etc. has its own pattern to insert comma, colons and other marks. These are usually not in the understanding of students. Only highly

experienced professors have a grip on these. While reading too they sound of no use. And this only leads to error. Students usually do not grab these marks easily and they will make mistakes by putting them on their own wish sometimes. As soon as the paper come to reviewers end he/she might get caught at the very first sight because these people are pro level achievers in certain tasks. So it is wise to recheck all the referencing pattern again with complete focus on these punctuation marks too as they may make errors accidentally too. In research studies when you send your paper for publishing the reviewer may send it back directly before moving into the content after watching certain errors.

Proofreading and editing: Many researchers and students skip through this section, which leaves them open to rejection or low marks. It takes a lot of work to compile reliable material from scientific journals and cite it. Researchers also need to employ language, punctuation, and the correct reference and citation styles. In this situation, using the assistance of an expert proofreading and editing service, such as Best Edit & Proof, may help you obtain an academic paper that is free of errors in all areas, including citation and reference.

Do not add same reference after every sentence in a paragraph. Only cite the sentence which is end at the end of paragraph in case the entire paragraph belongs to the same source. There is no need to cite same after each sentence.

Web addresses: You must cite the webpage Address in the reference section or bibliography whenever you use it in your study. The sample for this study you consulted is indicated below for the readers. To make it simple for a lecturer or reader to acquire the material, you frequently give the specific URL where you discovered it. You risk receiving a failing grade if you exclude this information from your bibliographical citation. Additionally, it makes it more difficult for others to obtain the information you used.

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Author's name: Students usually make mistakes in this section by writing full names or missing first or last name etc. How to correctly write it is: Write the surname of the author first followed by initial of the first name. In case the author's has a middle name writes its major alphabet too after first names initial. The initials must be followed by full stop. If the manuscript is written by three or less authors mention all while referencing. In case there are more than three authors than write et al. in italics after them.