Barely any student can survive school without writing at least a dozen papers. Of course, it all depends on the classes you take and the specialties you have chosen. Yet, even high school students know that essays are an essential part of their education. There is no way around it. In fact, writing assignments are becoming even more popular among educators than before. Only through written form, a teacher really sees the flow of thought of their students. Academic writing assignments should teach students discipline and time-management skills. They should also teach young people how to do research, proofreading, and editing.
Moreover, such assignments are also a perfect tool to teach young people precision and accuracy. All academic papers have to be completed by certain rules. All instructors give specific guides to their students on what to do and not to do in the world. Should we say that citation format plays a crucial role in those instructions? Yet, many students struggle with citations and references the most. This guide will show what referencing mistakes students often make in their papers and how to avoid them.
Misusing citation formats
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Let’s start with the most wide-spread referencing mistake of all – errors in citation formats. This type of mistake is as old as the world. Students often feel overwhelmed with the academic writing standards when it comes to drafting their first papers. It’s easy to understand why. Those who have no experience with essay writing or academic texts will be confused about different types of citations. It takes practice to adjust and learn all the nuances of these rules. Yet, understanding the differences among various referencing styles is necessary for submitting credible papers.
Some formats expect their in-text citations to include page numbers, and students miss out on that. Others should be done as footnotes, and instead they are included in the text. The rules for the bibliography page can also be different here. It’s all about little details like knowing the order of putting the references info. Students should know which format needs quote marks around the book title and which one needs the Italics.
Incorrect punctuation
Speaking about the confusion in citation formats, it’s worth mentioning the punctuation. To name the most widespread referencing mistake, it must be errors in punctuation in a bibliography list. Of course, those are very nuanced rules to remember. Still, students can use examples to follow the exact same expectations.
Different citation styles expect different punctuation in a reference list. Thus, you should be careful about what punctuation mark to leave after each piece of information. The most common marks here are a period, comma, and semicolon.
Incomplete bibliography
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One of the most common referencing mistakes is based on forgetfulness and lack of attention. Students often forget to put all their references on the bibliography list. They tend to have in-text citations, referencing academic sources. However, when it comes to bibliography, they miss those references. This mistake is pretty common. Although it’s not the end of the world, it surely can be easily fixed. You just need to pay attention. The next time you write an essay, keep your bibliography list updated every time you insert a new citation. Thus, you won’t miss out on anything. The teachers will appreciate your attentive and precise work.
Poor paraphrasing
Sometimes, students miss out on citing paraphrased sources. This is a big mistake that can lead to plagiarism accusations. You should avoid it at any cost. Thus, whenever you want to use some information borrowed from other authors, you should always credit them with a reference, even when you don’t put quotes around the sentence. Often, students feel like if the sentence is not in quotes, it’s not a citation. Thus, it shouldn’t be referenced. They are wrong. It’s called plagiarism.
Bad resources
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Another common mistake is the choice of poor resources. Overall, your instructor should tell you about what sources you can and can’t use for your paper. You have to follow these instructions precisely. Yet, even if the sources expectations are not clear, you should follow common sense. Don’t use any data or information from any questionable or suspicious resources. One way to review your resources is to double-check the information you receive there. Try finding the same data on other sites, articles, or published statistics. If you can’t double prove the data, you should not use it.
The other way to go here is to use reliable and credible resources. Hence, you can check out the popular and well-respected websites, news channels, and authors. Follow this strategy, and you will never have any issues with the credibility of your resources. In addition, do visit academic online libraries. They do all the work for you in terms of double-checking their authors and articles. Everything you can find there will be accepted as reliable sources. That’s the main reason writers from Customtermpaperwriting.Org always use it in their work.
Alphabetic order
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Now, this mistake is a simple one. Students tend to forget to put their sources in alphabetical order. Still, even such a simple mistake can cost you a few points. Placing your references in the bibliography in alphabetical order helps organize all your sources and facilitate the search. Thus, when your teacher wants to check your references list with in-text citations, they can do it fast and easily.
The bottom line
Young people often feel reluctant to follow all the referencing rules in their work. It’s easy to see why. Those rules can be a lot to handle for inexperienced writers. When you are working on a complex research paper, it’s hard to keep your focus on simple things like a correct citation format. Yet, those rules are there for a reason. Such strict referencing rules help keep order. After all, it is part of the academic language among scholars from all over the world. Thus, with a few simple rules, people are able to understand and find their way around any paper from any corner of the world.
