‘Referella’ comes to the referencing rescue

The North-West University (NWU) library services has upgraded its referencing guide after eight years while also developing an “innovative referencing intervention” that is aimed at assisting students to master referencing through the help of ‘Referella’, the Cinderella of referencing. 

The new referencing style that the NWU has implemented consists of three styles, namely: The NWU Harvard referencing style, which is the main structure, the 7th edition of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and the NWU Faculty of Law house style.

“The aim of this change is for the NWU referencing style to be more “advanced” in its approach as well as updated with the relevant sources of referencing,” Anneke Coetzee, a research support analyst, said. 

The NWU library executives decided to introduce an animation character, Referella that will make the learning experiences of referencing more fun and easy.

Referella was originally supposed to be a smartphone application that could be downloaded on app stores, but due to the time limitations and financial costs it became a library guide that could be accessed through the NWU library website. 

Referella is said to be very beneficial to students who might not know how to reference, or who are struggling.

“Sometimes the students don’t want to listen to an old ‘tannie’ like me about referencing so then they can just make use of Referella, who explains different aspects of referencing,” Coetzee said. 

Mr Matthew Moyo, a senior manager of library and information services at the NWU Potchefstroom campus, said that the aim of this is that students become wiser about the information they make use of. Students sometimes make use of information without referencing and are unaware of the consequences they can face for plagiarising information.

“It is a ‘catch them young approach’. We would like for students to make use of the referencing guide and Referella so that they understand the importance of referencing correctly from their first year. Graduates from the NWU should be critical users of information, they should be ethical in their work and they should comply with the law. That is our goal,” Moyo said. 

“When I first came to campus, I didn’t think referencing was that important as it was not taught at school. But I am glad that the NWU introduced Referella because she is an assistant beyond class time,” Taskeen Bakharia, a second-year social work student said.

The NWU Harvard referencing guide is an essential part of assignments on campus and with the assistance of Referella tasks may become easier as it is on one’s own pace and understanding.