Acknowledgement of sources
What is acknowledgement of sources?
When acknowledging your sources (also known as citation of sources,quotation of sources or reference), you state where you found the information: in which book or article, or on which website. When doing so, you will always use a citation style, for example APA or Vancouver.
Why cite sources?
- It must be clear to the reader which ideas are yours and which ideas are from the works of others. See also Plagiarism.
- It must be possible for the reader to verify where you took the information from.
- The use of suitable sources will increase the quality of your report and by that also its credibility.
How to cite a source?
- In your text, you include a short reference to the source. This consists of: the author’s name, the year of publication and sometimes the page number.
- Citing within the text can be done in two ways: by quoting or by paraphrasing. Quoting means repeating a text verbatim. Paraphrasing means repeating a text in your own words. See also: Quoting, Paraphrasing.
- At the end of your report, you include a list of all the sources you used: this is known as the bibliography, reference list or list of sources.
A bibliography contains at least the following elements for each publication: author + year of publication + title + publisher. See also Bibliography.
Examples (APA style):
Quote:
“Since 2001, there has been an increase in the number of young women enrolling in technical colleges.” (Jansen, 2004, p.32).
Paraphrase:
Jansen (2004) claims that since 2001 more young women enrol in technical colleges.
The bibliography at the end of your report will then contain full references to sources:
Jansen, N. (2004). Trendanalyse gender in het technisch hoger onderwijs. Amsterdam: VHTO.
For further information, see Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Bibliography.
