Engineering Practice

Lecture 1
Referencing and the Library

isc.tees.ac.uk
Q & A for Formative Assessment 1

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Learning Outcomes
At the end of this week, students should be able to:
• Explain the need and importance of referencing
• Identify different reference styles and the difference
between them
• Produce accurate and full references using the IEEE
referencing scheme
• Use the library to find reliable sources for tasks and
assignments
• Employ critical thinking in evaluating sources and
analyzing received information

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Referencing

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Referencing
From last week

Have a think about last week’s lesson and come up with

at least 3 reasons as to why referencing is important

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Referencing
From last week

Recap
Referencing is important because;
• Helps avoid plagiarism
• Shows depth of reading done
• Give credit to owners of intellectual property
• Gives more creditability to your work
• Gives the reader the opportunity to learn more
about the subject matter by following sources

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Referencing
From last week

Recap
Referencing includes;
• In line – short information about the source of the
text put within the text
• Reference list – a list put at the end of the text
which includes full details of the source of
information

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Referencing
Reference styles

There are a number of different reference styles

Different institutions/sectors/subjects prefer different

referencing styles

Examples include; APA, Harvard, IEEE among others

We will look at these 3 to see the differences

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Referencing
APA

• American Psychological Association

• Mainly used in Social and Behavioural sciences

In text citation - (Pears & Shields, 2019) or Pears & Shields

(2019)

Reference list:
Pears, R., & Shields, G. (2019). Cite them right: The essential
referencing guide (11th ed.). Macmillan Education.

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Referencing
Harvard

Used widely in UK universities.

In text citation - (Pears and Shields, 2019) or Pears and Shields

(2019)

Reference list:
Pears, R. and Shields, G., (2019). Cite them right: The essential
referencing guide. 11th ed. London: Macmillan Education.
link for guide

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Referencing
IEEE

• The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

• Mainly used in electronics, engineering, telecommunications,
computer science, and information technology

In text citation - [1]

Reference list:
[1] R. Pears and G. Shields, Cite them right: The essential
referencing guide, 11th ed. London: Macmillan Education, 2019.

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Referencing
We will mainly use the IEEE referencing system

A complete and comprehensive guide on how

to reference using the IEEE system can be
found at:
https://www.bath.ac.uk/publications/library-guides-to-citing-refer
encing/attachments/ieee-style-guide.pdfz

The document can also be found in PDF format

on Blackboard

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Referencing
Activity

Using the guide in the previous slide, come up with an IEEE

reference for the following:

Book – Mechanical Engineering Principles (Amazon link)

E-Book – Doing Projects and Reports in Engineering (E-Book link)

Online article – (link)

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Referencing
Activity

You will be put in a group. In your group you will look at some
IEEE references for the book with details provided in the table
below. The references have mistakes. Could you identify them
Title Fundamentals of physics
Authors (first name, last name) David Halliday, Robert Resnick, Jearl Walker
Year published 2020
Edition 12
City published Milton
Publisher John Wiley

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Referencing
Activity cont’d

1. D. Halliday, Fundamentals of physics, 12th ed. Milton: John Wiley,

2020.

2. David Halliday, Robert Resnick and Jearl Walker, Fundamentals of

physics, 12th ed. Milton: John Wiley, 2020.

3. D. Halliday, R. Resnick and J. Walker, Fundamentals of physics,

Milton: John Wiley, 2020.

4. Halliday, D., Resnick, R. and Walker, J., 2020. Fundamentals of

physics. 12th ed. Milton: John Wiley.

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Using the Library

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Using the Library
Link to Teesside University library page:
https://www.tees.ac.uk/lis/

Things to look out for:

• Search function
• Borrowing services
• New students page
• Reference information

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Using the Library
Reference Management

There a number of reference management tools you can use e.g.

RefWorks, EndNote, Mendeley, Zotero.

As a Teesside University student you will access to the following:

• RefWorks
• EndNote X9
• EndNote 20

The library pages can be found at: link

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Other Helpful Resources
Science Direct

• A database containing journal and books and other reference

materials.

• A good source for your research.

• Content is peer reviewed.

• You can sign in with your University email Sign-in.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/

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Other Helpful Resources
Cite This For Me

• Website that can create a reference for you

• Supports over 10 different reference styles

• You can search for books, journals, etc.

• You can create a reference list and download to word

document. (remember to check and correct)

https://www.citethisforme.com/

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Using the Library
Activity

You will be placed in a group

Using Teesside University’s library resources, find 3

reliable sources of information (journals) on recent
advancement in composite manufacturing

Using “cite this for me” or any other tool, produce an

IEEE reference for one of those sources.

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Critical Reading

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Critical Reading
Good and Bad sources

What do you think makes a good source?

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Critical Reading
What makes a good source?

• Reliable – Peer reviewed, approved sources, textbooks,

trusted institutions

• Recent – if the information was written a long time ago, it

could be outdated

• Relevant – should be relevant to the topic being covered

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Critical Reading
Critical Thinking

Requires you to look beyond surface appearances in order to

properly determine what is going underneath.

It requires you to:

• Draw objective conclusions..
• Based on sound reasoning..
• Following a balanced, objective, systematic investigation of all
and potentially conflicting evidence
• Keeping your own reasoning process under scrutiny

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Critical Reading
Critical Thinking

Summary statement

Impartially analyse different sources of information, weighing

them up in order to fully understand the topic in question. This
then enables you to draw you own conclusions which can then
be presented with evidence.

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Critical Reading
Critical Thinking

Process involved includes:

1. Identifying the line of reasoning
2. Critically evaluating the line of reasoning
3. Question surface appearances
4. Identify evidence in the text
5. Evaluate the evidence
6. Identify the writer’s conclusions
7. Evaluate whether the evidence supports the conclusions

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Critical Reading
Sources

In the following scenarios decide which of the options

provided you think will be the most appropriate source
of information for the task

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Scenario 1
You are in your 1st year of a mechanical engineering degree. You
have a lab report to complete on the fundamentals of
thermodynamics

Options

A. Wikipedia
B. A highly respected peer reviewed journal publication on a
recent exciting development in thermodynamics
C. Textbook in the module recommended reading list
D. Tweet from someone with many followers

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Scenario 2
You are writing a dissertation on your final year project of your
electrical engineering degree

Options

A. Recent peer reviewed articles on your topic of investigation

B. News articles covering stories that have a relationship to the
topic of investigation
C. A lab report you completed in your 1st year on the same
subject area
D. Textbook published 30 years ago that covers your topic of
investigation

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Scenario 3
You have just completed an engineering project in which you had
to design a machine. You are now writing a report on the project

Options

A. The YouTube channel of a project manager

B. A recent publication of a new discovery in an area of
engineering
C. A popular blog on “Having Fun With Project Management”
D. Data sheets from companies that produced parts that you
used

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Summary
 Full and accurate referencing is very important
 There are different types of reference styles
 There are a number of tools available that can help
with reference management
 It is important to use relevant sources for your
research
 Applying critical thinking to sources of information
is a critical part of academic writing

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Question and Answer Session

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References

Cottrell, S., 2019. The study skills handbook. 5th ed. London:
Red Globe Press, pp.Part B; Chapter 12.

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Recommended Reading

Maier, P., Barney, A., and Price, G. (2009)

Study skills for Science, Engineering and Technology students
Pearson Education UK. Chapter 1

Cottrell, S., 2019. The study skills handbook. 5th ed. London:
Red Globe Press, pp.Part B; Chapter 12.

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Thank you for your attention!

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