Referencing

Referencing in the OCR Extended Project does two jobs. It shows a moderator where your evidence came from, which is AO2, and it keeps you clear of plagiarism, which is malpractice and can lead to a mark of zero. OCR's moderators name Harvard, IEEE and APA as conventions you can use, and a bare list of web addresses as the thing that loses marks.

Choose one style and use it everywhere

1. Ask your supervisor whether your centre requires a particular style. If it does, that decision is made.
2. If not, pick one convention and apply it to everything: Harvard, IEEE and APA are all acceptable.
3. Write the choice in your log, with the date. That is a small AO1 decision with a reason.
4. Do not mix styles. Consistency is what is being judged, not which convention you picked.

Citing in the text

A citation is the short marker in your writing. The reference is the full entry in your list. You need both.

• Put a citation at every point where you use a source, including where you have put the idea in your own words.
• Quote sparingly, and only when the exact wording matters. Put quotation marks around it and give the page.
• Never cite a source you have not read. If you found it quoted somewhere else, either read the original or make clear where you actually saw it.

Building the reference list

These are patterns, not real sources. Replace every part with your own details, and follow the exact punctuation of the style your centre uses.

Two rules apply whatever the style: list in alphabetical order by the author's surname, and give enough detail that a reader could find the source themselves.

Reference list or bibliography

• A reference list contains everything you cited in your work.
• A bibliography contains everything you read, including sources you did not cite.

Your reference list is the one that must be complete. Keeping a bibliography as well is useful in an EPQ, because the reading you rejected is evidence of selection for AO2. If you include both, label them clearly.

Record sources as you go, not at the end

Add a row to your source log the first time you open a source. Retrofitting references from browser history is where lost citations and accidental plagiarism come from.

Evaluating a source

A judgement, not a tick. Cover two separate things: how useful it is to your project, and how far you can trust it. OCR's moderators suggest a method such as CRAAP: currency, relevance, authority, accuracy and purpose.

Write it like this: what the source is, what you used it for, what makes the evidence checkable, where its bias or limits are, and what you did about them. There is a worked pair in Phase 2 and more in strong and weak examples.

What goes wrong

• A reference list of bare web addresses with no authors, titles or dates.
• Citations in the text with no matching entry in the list, or entries that were never cited.
• Two or three styles mixed in one document.
• Paraphrased ideas left uncited, on the assumption that only quotations need citing.
• References added the night before submission, when several sources can no longer be identified.
• Sources listed that were never read.

Next: strong and weak examples, or back to how the marks work.