Citing And Referencing

What did I know before?
Before learning the rules and layout of Harvard style citing and references I was unaware of it's importance. I have always known that plagiarism and using other peoples work as your own is a crime, but I assumed that as long as their work was reworded slightly then it doesn't count as their work. So in the past I have only references when copying and pasting an amount of someone else's work to show that none of the words were my own.   

What was the task?
To learn how to cite and reference properly, I looked at three sources and two different ways of citing and referencing them. Using an online book, a physical book and a website, I took sections of each one to reference. The first form of citing was to paraphrase which is where you briefly reword someone else's work, however the views are still their own so you must give them credit. Here is my example of citing a paraphrased sentence: 

Harris (2013) thinks that mutual distrust can characterize relationships between campaign professional and academics.

The second part of the task was to go to the college library and find a book of our choice that would be useful for our task on elections and making a successful campaign. To do this we used the online library catalogue to search a keyword that would help us find a book, eBook or magazine that would contain useful information. I searched 'campaign' and found a useful book called 'Sales Promotion' that the librarian helped me locate. I read a few sections of the book and referenced a few sections, I used the quoting method and here's an example of that:

“Sales promotion, and indeed advertising and PR, communicate with one person at a time, usually the reader of a leaflet, poster, mailshot or press or TV advertisement. But they are not atomized individuals: they are people who build their understanding by means of their interactions with friends, colleagues, families and communities.” (Cummins and Mullin 2002, p.58)

After citing and referencing different sections from different sources I created a bibliography to reference and credit each separate source that I used. The bibliography is to put at the end of the work and it has it's own section.

What do I know now?
I know the correct way of referencing and citing someone else's work in terms of layout  e.g. including the surnames, date, page and any other sources that may have been cited within the text. I also now know that you must credit peoples work if you paraphrase it as it is still their work even if you alter a couple of words to make it less exact, to do this sort of citing you can either include their name and the date within your sentence or put the information in brackets at the end depending on what fits best. 

I also know the correct way of creating the bibliography, that you don't just simply write the name of the book but you have to mention specific points such as the authors name, book title, date published, edition number and the publishers name. Also, after using the library catalogue I now feel confident that I could use the library as a place of research as well as just the internet which would further my research. After these tasks I am going to be aware of which parts of my research are other peoples work and the best way to cite and reference the original source.