THE RUDIMENTS OF REFERENCING IN PROJECT/RESEARCH WORKS

Project or research work cannot be said to be complete if there are references. Reference in every project work comes after the summary and conclusion. Reference is simply a detailed description of the document or materials consulted during the project work. Bibliography can also be said to be a list of publications consulted while writing the paper, project or research work.  Reference is slightly more detailed when compared to bibliography.

There are generally accepted means of referencing, in referencing authors of documents consulted in writing your project or paper, the following information is required for your reference to be termed “professional”

1. The author name(s) as they appear in the document you consulted.

2. The title of the book(s) consulted.

3. The year of publication of the material.

In referencing, most project supervisors do not accept references of more than a decade old i.e. 10 years old from the time your research work is being carried out, this is because the findings or postulation from the book or document may have been improved upon or better still altered. So most supervisors prefer their student to consult books, publications or papers that are not older than 10 years from the year of your project work.

In citing your references in your main work, the surnames, year of publication and page number of the book or publication you are citing should be fully stated. In citing of references in the main body of the project or research work, the title of the paper, publication, journal or book is not required.

Referencing enable others to effectively trace the sources of your project or where the ideas used for the research are sourced from. Referencing is one of the most important aspects of project writing, this is because when references are not included the work ceases to be a research work and this may not go down well with your project supervisor which could lead to outright cancellation of the work or scoring low grades in your project work. Below is an example of how citation is carried out in a research work:

 “It Takes place mostly under very deplorable conditions. However, the traffickers make use of boats and on canoes to cross oceans and seas without sufficient preparation for the feeding and wellbeing of the persons on board.

Sea transportation is used to traffic persons from Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Ghana to countries in central Africa such as Gabon, Guinea and Cameroon, (ILO, 2001: 12).”

Looking at the above example, the authors name, the year of the material’s publication and then the page being referenced or cited is fully written or represented.

Looking at how references are drafted at the end of the project work, the example below would help greatly:

“Osuala, E. C. (2007) Introduction to research methodology, 3rd edition Africana-first publishers Ltd.

Peter F. Drunker (1954), the practice of management, U. S. A, free press limited.

Philip kotler (2009, Marketing management 13th edition pearson education, Inc.

P.R Smith (1997) Marketing communication, An Integrated Approach, Kogan page limited, Pentonvill Road London

Simon Majero, (1986), International marketing, A strategic approach to world market, Britain Mackey of chat ham ltd.”