How to write and reference in assignments

You know you’ve got the knowledge and drive to succeed in your CIH qualification, but explaining what you’ve learnt in an assignment can still be daunting. It doesn’t matter if your last experience with academic writing was at school, college, or university – our study skills guidelines and workshops are there to help you figure it out. 

Different study providers might require slightly different styles of academic writing depending on what you’re studying and the level you’re working at. There’s a lot of advice available online, so make sure you stick to Housing Academy resources for your qualification level and attend a study skills session if you’re unsure.  We’ve explained some of the key terms and requirements below. 

Quick glossary

• Sources – Anything you’ve used to help you write an assignment (e.g. books, newspapers, reports, online articles).
• Referencing – How you acknowledge the sources of information you’ve used to help you research and write an assignment. You should list these at the end of your assignment in a reference list. 
• Direct quotes – When you include the exact wording someone else has said or written in your assignment. Speech marks should be used around these.
• Paraphrasing – When you summarise what someone else has said or written in your assignment, using your own words. Speech marks do not need to be used here. 
• In-text citations – These should be added after direct quotes or paraphrased content in your writing to acknowledge where you got your information from. The Housing Academy uses the Harvard referencing system, which means you’ll need to include the author’s surname, year of publication, and a page number (if available) in brackets. 
• Reference list – A list of all the sources you’ve cited in your assignment, organised in alphabetical order by the author’s surname at the end of your assignment.
• Bibliography – A list of all the sources you’ve used to research your writing that you haven’t cited in-text. This usually comes after your reference list and should also be organised in alphabetical order by the author’s surname.
• Plagiarism – When you present someone else’s ideas or insights as your own. 

Correctly recording your references is important because it ensures that the sources you used to complete your work get the credit they deserve. Whether accidental or not, missing out references when you’ve used someone else’s ideas is plagiarism. We run regular study skills workshops for anyone wanting to learn more about this, so go along and ask for clarification if you need to. Chances are your questions will help the other workshop attendees too! It’s also a good idea to reference as you go instead of leaving it all to the end, as things can get confusing when names and dates are easily forgotten. If you’re in the flow of writing and don’t want to stop, mark up where your references need to go in your document so you can fill them in as soon as possible afterwards.  

Different CIH qualifications require different levels of referencing, so it’s always good to double check that you’re doing the right thing… 

As well as referencing correctly, reading widely is a brilliant way to boost your subject knowledge and improve your writing skills – and it makes it a lot easier to come up with evidence for the points you make in your assignments! Rather than looking around for something to back-up your arguments as you go, you’ll already have a bank of knowledge to quote and reference when you need it.  

If you’re struggling with organising an assignment, or you’re not sure where you should use external sources to improve your work, it can help to pick apart the assignment question as they’re written in a way that should help you structure your writing. It can also help to go over your assignment’s learning objectives. These can help you outline a basic assignment structure before diving into writing. Whenever you make a point, it’s good to back it up with evidence, so it can be helpful to plan out which sources you’re going to use before you start writing too. The Housing Academy’s study skills workshops on writing assignment are a brilliant resource if you’re stuck – we'll explain the key skills and techniques you need. 

Finally, one of the most important things is to be confident in your abilities. You’ve worked hard and built up your knowledge – an assignment is just a way to show off how much you’ve learnt! For existing learners in need of extra support, check out our assignment writing workshops here. The Housing Academy wants you to succeed as much as you do.