Academic writing is also often known as scholarly writing. This type of writing style is often adopted by various students and academic professionals to show any of their original or inspired work.
There are many experts who also state that academic writing follows a prose style. It is delivered in a very professional, dispassionate, and impersonal tone. And the main aim of any academic writing piece is often to inform its audience and further be able to critically engage that audience. There are many rules which an individual has to follow while writing or working on any academic writing piece. And one such rule is to ensure that there is no plagiarism within the entire content. Plagiarism is defined as the wrongful stealing of thoughts, ideas, expressions, and language of any other individual. Hence, it is important to deal with plagiarism in an efficient manner. And many experts deal with plagiarism with the help of referencing and citation. In this academic writing piece, readers will be able to learn about all the different systems and styles of referencing. But before that, it is important for the readers to learn about the details related to academic writing, plagiarism, and a few other topics. All these specific topics of discussion are mentioned below.

Academic Writing
As it was mentioned above, academic writing is also known as scholarly writing. And this form of writing has a prose style to it. This form of writing has an impersonal and dispassionate tone it. And this form of writing is also based on investigates knowledge and close evidence. It is often intended to either challenge the current dominant ideas and knowledge or to reinforce it. And as the name suggests, this form of writing is followed by people who are a part of the ‘academic world’. It is important for the readers to remember that no matter the subject, academic writing is always based on some sort of knowledge, it has an objective stance, and it is always organized in details in such a way that future scholars can try to replicate the results or test out the theory. There are also a number of key elements of any academic writing piece. And the four major elements of any academic writing piece are mentioned below.

• Register or Formal Style

All academic writing pieces are not written casually but instead follow a formal register.

• Proper References

All statements of facts in an academic writing piece are always backed up by the authority figure or the authorized representative of that statement of fact. This is done with the help of references.

• Bibliography

This is a list of articles or sources which are presented at the end of any academic writing piece. Bibliography also consists of all the sources of citations which were made in the academic writing piece.

• Plagiarism

As it was mentioned above, plagiarism is often defined as the wrongful stealing of any other individual’s work. In the field of academics, this can also lead to severe consequences for the individual whose work is plagiarized. Hence, it is important for any academic writing piece to be completely free of plagiarism.

These are all the major key elements which are present in every academic writing piece.

Introduction to Plagiarism

In this section, the readers will be able to learn more about plagiarism. According to many experts, plagiarism can be defined as the wrongful appropriation or the intentional stealing and publication of some other individual’s ideas, language, expressions, or thoughts. It can also be said that when an individual commits plagiarism then he or she is presenting the copied work as being the original work of the person in question. It is important for the readers to note that the modern concept of plagiarism as being something immoral and this emphasis on the originality of the work have only emerged since the 18^th century Europe. These concepts especially took hold during the Romantic Movement in Europe.

It is also widely agreed that plagiarism should be punishable and that punishment can include suspension, different penalties, or even expulsion from the professional sphere or school. This goes to show that it is vital for any academic professional or student to avoid plagiarism in his or her work at any cost. And one way in which an individual can achieve that is by referring the sources. There are also many styles of referencing and some of those styles will be discussed in the section below.

The Styles and Systems of Referencing

Different styles or systems of referencing can be looked on as some sort of rules which dictates the method or process which an individual should follow to acknowledge the thoughts, works, ideas, or expression of any other individual. This is a key feature of any academic writing piece. It can also enable an individual to avoid plagiarism and have a successful academic writing piece. And as it has mentioned above, there are many systems and styles of referencing which an individual can follow. And some of the major systems or styles of referencing are mentioned below.

1. American Medical Association (AMA)

This style is used in medicine and is also regarded as the numbered footnote style. This particular style is also used excessively in all sorts of journals which are published by the American Medical Association. When referencing for a book in this style the major format which can be followed is mentioned below.

Author AA, Author BB, Author CC, et al. Title of Work. Location: Publisher; Year:Page-Page

2. American Psychological Association (APA)

This style of referencing is often used in the field of psychology but there are many other fields in which this particular style also plays a vital role like the Social Sciences. This style is also often regarded as a variant of the Harvard style and it is also regarded as the author-date style or system. If one wants to reference any book in this particular style then that can be done in the method which is mentioned below.

Author A Surname, Author A Initial., Author B Surname, Author B Initial., Author C Surname, Author C Initial., …Author Last Surname, Author Last Initial. (Year). Title (Edition). Place of Publication: Publisher.

3. Harvard

This style is also known as the author-date reference style. In this style, there is often a list of references at the end of the document. This list of references is arranged by the year of publication and the name of the authors. It is important for the readers to remember that there is no such official manual for this style of reference. And if an individual wants to reference a book in this style then that can be done by following the format which is mentioned below.

Author Surname, Author Initial. (Year of Publication) Title. Edition. Place of Publication: Publisher

These are all the major three styles of referencing. It is important for the readers to note that there are also many other styles of referencing such as Chicago Manual of Style, American Chemical Society, Academy of Management Style, and many other referencing styles.

The Conclusion:

Academic writing pieces often follow a very dispassionate tone. There are also four key elements of academic writing and those four key elements are plagiarism, bibliography, formal style, and references. There can be many penalties for plagiarism. Hence, it is important to avoid plagiarism in the academic world. To do that one can use many referencing styles or methods. Some of the common referencing styles or methods include Harvard, American Psychological Association, Academy of Management Style, and many other reference methods.

The References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_writing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference

https://awelu.srv.lu.se/sources-and-referencing/using-a-reference-style/different-kinds-of-reference-styles/

https://pitt.libguides.com/citationhelp

http://www.citethisforme.com/guides

https://web.library.uq.edu.au/research-tools-techniques/referencing-style-guides

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/exercises/referencing/referencing%20skills/page_05.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism