My Information Skills

When doing an assignment you must acknowledge your information sources, i.e. where or who your information came from. You can give appropriate attribution to the original author by referencing (or citing). 

You need to include a reference every time you refer to someone else's idea or information. You need to cite the original author every time you:

• copy or quote information
• summarise something you read or heard
• paraphrase (put someone else's ideas into your own words), or
• include an image, graph or graphic that you did not create yourself.

Each source needs its own reference (or citation) that includes details of:

• who created the source
• when the source was published
• what the source is
• where the source came from.

There are many ways to appropriately reference your sources. This will depend on the referencing style that you use. Most students at TAFE SA will be asked to use the Harvard (author-date) referencing style, but you should check with your lecturers for the referencing style they prefer you use.

​TAFE SA library staff have prepared the following guides which can give you further help:

Basic Harvard Referencing Guide

Advanced Harvard Referencing Guide

Harvard Referencing Example

Harvard Referencing Video Guides