4.10 Advice on note taking to avoid inadequate referencing

It is important that your study methods help you to maintain good referencing practices and avoid plagiarism and inadequate referencing.

One well-known trap is to make poor notes from your reading which you later use when writing up your essay or writing in an examination. For example, if you copy a text verbatim when you are studying but do not indicate this in your notes, then there is a real risk that you may later go to those notes when writing an assignment or sitting an exam and write out ‘your’ notes – without adequate or even any acknowledgement of the original source. That will lead to allegations of plagiarism or, at best, inadequate referencing.

If you are making notes when studying a text (whether a legal authority, a commentary or any other material), give yourself sufficient information to enable you to use those notes later without fear of transgressing the rules on referencing. Whether you are copying material verbatim or paraphrasing a text or noting information gathered from some sources, always note to yourself what you are doing and take down the relevant information you will need later. If you make the right notes at the right time, you will save yourself time and effort later trying to find the original sources and references.