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How many marks can you lose for incorrect referencing?

My uni has said to use Harvard referencing for a piece of work and up until now I've used numerical. If I revert it back, it'll use so many extra words that I'll incur a 10% penalty (as in if I get 70% then it'll go down to 60%). Anyone have any estimates of what the penalty would be if I just submitted with the wrong reference style?
Not referencing properly isn't as likely to lose you marks as it is to get you done for plagiarism - which yes, not properly citing things counts as. That is a far more serious issue. I would suggest you use a standard referencing format (e.g. Harvard) and to reword your work to make it fall into the required word count. You aren't going to lose marks for being terse while you get your point across.
Original post by EPAA
My uni has said to use Harvard referencing for a piece of work and up until now I've used numerical. If I revert it back, it'll use so many extra words that I'll incur a 10% penalty (as in if I get 70% then it'll go down to 60%). Anyone have any estimates of what the penalty would be if I just submitted with the wrong reference style?

Do you know if your reference list is definitely included in the word count? Not all universities/departments require this, but you'll need to double check if you aren't sure.
Original post by EPAA
My uni has said to use Harvard referencing for a piece of work and up until now I've used numerical. If I revert it back, it'll use so many extra words that I'll incur a 10% penalty (as in if I get 70% then it'll go down to 60%). Anyone have any estimates of what the penalty would be if I just submitted with the wrong reference style?

No idea but if its correctly cited just in the wrong format, id guess maybe 5%. In text citations shouldn't count towards the word count.

Ive always thought Vancouver or IEEE referencing is cleaner and better than Harvard personally, also its what most journal articles use so it seems harsh not to allow it imo but you'll just have to see if you risk it...
(edited 4 years ago)

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