The most common forms of academic source are:
- Books.
- Journal articles.
- Published reports.
Who to ask for a reference? A referee should be someone you're familiar with who can reflect on your academic and personal qualities well. In most cases, your references will be written by academics from your undergraduate course such as your personal tutor or dissertation supervisor.
Schools often ask for letters of recommendation from an academic teacher — sometimes in a specific subject — or a school counselor or both. Ask a counselor, teachers and your family who they think would make good references.
How to Reference Properly
- Direct Quotations. When directly quoting text, you must use quotation marks and a footnote or endnote symbol.
- Paraphrasing. When you paraphrase or use someone else's ideas without directly quoting them, you still acknowledge them by an endnote.
- Referencing.
Book references: general form
- Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (year). Book title. Location: Publisher.
- Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (year). Book title. Retrieved from
- Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (year). Book title.
- Editor, A. A. (Ed.). (year).
- Editor, A. A., & Editor B. B. (Eds.). (year).
TAs cannot write letters of recommendation for graduate school, because they are not actually professors. This is NOT just because professors and graduate programs are elitist and status-obsessed. Rather, it is because TAs have not finished their Ph. As such, the TA may be a great informal advisor.
Tips on Writing Personal Recommendation Letters
- Think carefully before saying yes.
- Follow a business letter format.
- Focus on the job description.
- Explain how you know the person, and for how long.
- Focus on one or two traits.
- Remain positive.
- Share your contact information.
- Follow the submission guidelines.
first-hand knowledge of your work experience and qualifications. Do ask for the recommendation in person, rather than sending an email. Do tell the letter writer why you need the reference letter. Do mention specific experience, qualifications, and skills that you would like included in the letter.
How do I write a personal recommendation letter?
- Always start with the date.
- State who you are recommending and what you are recommending them for.
- Describe how long you know the person and in what capacity.
- State their best qualities.
- Give details about the person's character, morals, and values.
Length: A letter of recommendation should be more than one or two paragraphs; a letter this short suggests you either do not know the person well or do not fully endorse them. However, you want to keep the letter concise and focus on a few key points, so avoid writing more than one page.
Scholarly articles are the most credible sources you can find because of the rigorous peer-review process. They are thoroughly researched, which means you can “mine” the article's bibliography to find other sources that might be useful for your paper.
6 Tips to Finding Research Paper Sources that Set You Apart
- Start with Wikipedia.
- Go to the library (a great place for research paper sources)
- Find the top few secondary resources cited in the article.
- Follow the trail of citations to primary sources.
- Mix up your research paper source type.
- Get at least one source per page of your research paper.
The most familiar types are dictionaries, encyclopedias, almanacs, biographical sources, directories, atlases, and bibliographies.
The most common credible sources are scholarly journals, conference papers and books because these have been peer-reviewed (read and approved for publication by other authors). However, there are good websites that can be used; generally ending in .
Newspapers, tabloids and other forms of similar media are not considered academic sources. Academic journals are the most relevant for research and study purposes as they are often refereed (also called "peer reviewed" or "scholarly").
This is often referred to as your application reference, application or student number, this number will start with "20" and is 9 digits long. As an undergraduate student if you are having difficulties finding this number, we can always find your record with your UCAS personal ID number.
