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Research Essentials

Level up your researching, reading and writing skills with these essential tips and navigate your first university assignments. Find relevant support and resources from the Library and Academic Skills.

Integrate your research into academic writing. Cite and reference your sources.

Get help with your writing from Academic Skills

These resources will help you with the writing process.

Top tips for writing

 

Understand referencing

  • Citing is the formal way of acknowledging information sources within the body of your essay, report or paper and points your reader to the specific part of the original source you're referring to. It is sometimes called a 'pinpoint reference'.
  • References are included at the end of your essay, report or paper that includes all the sources you've cited (referred to, quoted or actively used) in your work.
  • A bibliography is a list of sources at the end of your essay, report or paper that includes all the sources you read and relied on during your research, not just the ones you've cited in your writing.

The referencing style set by your Subject Coordinator will tell you if you need to include a reference list or a bibliography.

Learn how to reference with Re:cite


Re:cite can help you with all the major referencing styles used at the University of Melbourne. It also contains links and instructions for tools and software that can help you manage your references as you collect sources and write.

Submitting your assignment

If it's your first time submitting an assignment on Canvas, there's a few steps you need to work through. Make sure you're aware of what's required before the submission deadline. Depending on your Subject Coordinator's choices, your assignment may be checked to see how similar it is to other assignments and published work using a tool called 'Turnitin.

 

Visit the guide to submitting an assignment online

 

Learn more about Turnitin and Similarity Reports.