In coursework writing be it an essay, report or a dissertation, students are asked by their
tutors to provide reference for the content that they have written. Academic writing is a
formal kind of writing and thus, it becomes important to reference and cite the content written
from other scholars’ works. However, students find it difficult to write references because
they are not well-versed with references. This article solves this problem by providing a basic
guide on how to reference. To start with, students should be able to understand what a
reference is. A reference is a list which provides all the sources that are used to write the
research paper. Students need to get a full understanding of the reference by reading about
references thoroughly. Apart from the meaning of the reference, students must be aware of
the type of references, significance of reference in academic writing and the number of
references to be used. Many times, scholars worry about references which further hamper
their academic writing and thus, reading about references will make the students more
confident about their ability to reference.
Role of reference in an academic paper
The very purpose of reference in academic writing is to include citations of other writers’ or
scholars’ work in university tasks. The main idea behind it is to provide proof to support
arguments and claims in the task.
References are written at the end of the essay but are equally important to complete an
academic piece of writing. One crucial aspect of referencing is the formatting style of writing
a reference which is the trickiest part for the UK students. Sometimes, tutors advise the
students to write the referencing in a particular format whereas, sometimes, students
themselves have to choose the formatting style. Some of the most common formatting styles
are Chicago, Harvard, APA and MLA which are preferred for academic purposes.
Another important aspect of writing reference in the essay is identifying the total number of
references to be written in an essay as per word count of the essay. The number of references
in academic writing depends on the type of academic piece of writing. For instance, if a
reflective essay is written, it is likely to have less references as major part of the essay is baed
on personal experience Similarly, in the dissertation where primary data is collected, there
will be no references in the primary data part as the data is collected for the firts time and has
not been taken from any other writer’s work. On the contrary, in case of secondary data in
dissertation, students must ensure that references are provided as secondary data was already
collected beforehand and thus, needs to be referenced.
Majority of the students have doubts regarding the article of two thousand words. Students
should note that an article of two thousand words consists of about fifteen hundred words in
the main body. Main body is the most crucial part of an article which consists of about three
or four main points and arguments. For every point made, there should be at least two to three
references. Thus, it can be said that in an essay of two thousand words, a student should write
about 8 references by adding 2 references each per point made. Eight is the minimum number
as students can write about 8-10 references in the main body part. Remaining 500 words are
taken by introduction and conclusion. Students should keep a note that conclusion part
concludes the overall article and thus, need no referencing. However, around 1 or 2
references should be done in the introduction part as students need to reference to other
scholar’s work to introduce the topic. Hence, it can be said that overall, students must write
8-12 references in a two thousand word article. Considering how many pages is 2000 words,
an article of 2000 words is accommodated in around 4 pages when the document is single-
spaced and 8 pages when the document is double-spaced. Every page can contain about 1-2
references in case of double spacing and about 3 references per page in case of single-
spacing. This will help students not only in writing references for a two thousand word
article but will also help them in identifying the total number of references to be written in
articles having different word counts.
Students can write references as per the tutor and their will and there is no ideal number but
providing a certain number of reference per thousand words provides a basic idea of writing
references which is neither too less nor more. Now students can get a basic idea of writing
references appropriately. They can feel more relaxed now as referencing has become more
transparent. It is high time that students practice writing references which would be helpful
for them in their coursework writing. Adding to this, students can practice the art of
references by counting the number of referrals to be written in 2000 words, 3000 words or
more words.
Considering the significance of academic writing and getting good grades, there are many
essay writing services in UK which provide guidance and help to students regarding their
academic work. These writing services also help students in referencing and thus, provide
them with better grades. References are not just about including links of sources. Students
need to put authentic references and should be well-aware of the number of references to be
done and the correct format in which it is to be done. For high-quality work, students are
advised to include more than average number of references as it makes the piece of writing
more credible and informative.
