Trying to get my head around referencing...

The blogs page on Platform introduces me thusly - “self-confessed education addict Carrie Walton knows pretty much everything there is to know about being a student”. In the two years since I started writing this blog that has never failed to amuse me because whilst in a sense it’s true, in another sense it’s hilariously inaccurate.

I’ve been an OU student for nine years now and have witnessed an incredible change in the way the university works and the way studying is conducted. Over the years I’ve gradually improved my skills and although I’m certainly a long way off being a first class student I consider myself pretty adept at constructing arguments and writing a semi-decent essay.

However, there’s one aspect of being a student that no matter how hard I try I just simply cannot wrap my head around and frequently stumble on – referencing. I. Hate. Referencing. I really thought I’d cracked it last year, albeit via a cheat’s method. MS Word has a referencing tool so I got the hang of it and thought all my woes were solved, but feedback from a tutor set the record straight -it doesn’t actually present references in the strict Harvard style required by the OU.

Back to square one, and it’s now causing problems with my MA. Durham University uses Harvard style referencing too and MA study requires a lot more independent reading in terms of journal articles etc so I REALLY need to get the hang of it once and for all.

'It’s a truly comprehensive guide to citing references of ANY description – including Twitter, blogs, pieces of artwork – you name it!'

Now I’m obviously not the only one struggling with accurate referencing - and please do speak up if you’re in the same predicament as me – because on my StudentHome page I’ve spotted what could end up being my salvation. Check this baby out!

It’s a truly comprehensive guide to citing references of ANY description – including Twitter, blogs, pieces of artwork – you name it! It’s probably been there for donkey’s years but there’s just so much information available on the OU site it’s easy to miss things like this. This could be my saviour and help me once and for all get the hang of referencing.

All I need is exactly what it offers – an example of how to do an in-text citation and an example of a full reference, but when it’s not simple thing I’m referencing I get really confused. For my last essay I was trying to reference a website and got ridiculously muddled up with how to cite it properly – do I include the full URL or just the home page, do I put the date the webpage was created or the date I accessed it. There are too many variables for my feeble brain to cope with, especially when it’s just been frazzled with epistemological and ontological theory.

I have a TMA due in this week. It’s a level 3 crime module and I’ve been doing some additional reading for it so I’ll specifically ask my tutor if I managed to do my referencing right.

For any new students out there I would strongly urge you to have a gander at that page. My studying ‘career’ would have been far simpler if I had gotten to grips with referencing right from the start but alas, my intellect obviously doesn’t stretch that far.