Part 2: Academic writing

Referencing is important as good citations will allow your lecturers to see the path you have followed in researching and discussing an area of the law. If you have researched well, your reader will be able to see evidence of that research in your footnotes and bibliography.

Incorporating references in your writing is most effective when it not only showcases your good research skills, but also supports your line of argument by reinforcing or supporting any points that you are making.

Remember that in most cases your assignments will require you to develop an argument or opinion about the topic under discussion, and not simply collect other peoples' ideas. In other words, don't rely on your research skills to patch together the ideas, quotes or opinions of others. You must make sure that you critically evaluate your source material and integrate it smoothly into your overall argument.

If you fail to show evidence of your research in your assignments, you will potentially lose marks. You might also be suspected of plagiarising the words and ideas of others, which is considered very seriously by the university. To avoid inadvertently plagiarising, it is important to acknowledge all of your research sources.

As you become more experienced in your legal studies, you will develop more advanced techniques for good acknowledgment practice inside your writing. In the links that follow this module, you will find some tips to get you started. You might also like to refer to Learning Development's interactive online guidance on good critical reading, note-taking and referencing techniques at the Unilearning website.

Quotations