Academic & Professional Communications

Academic writing skills

The UniSkills platform is designed to help improve your academic assignment, study, numeracy and digital skills. Each module has a sequence of interactive lessons and exercises that can be done in any order that suits you.

This module introduces you to reading techniques, evaluating the sources you have found, reading critically, and note taking.

This module introduces you to the different styles of writing, the structure and mechanics of sentences, how to use punctuation effectively, the elements involved in essay and report writing, and how to edit and proofread your assignment.

This module guides you through the basics of paraphrasing, summarising and quoting in your academic work.

What is referencing?

Referencing is a standardised method of acknowledging sources of information and ideas that you have used in your assignments, in a way that uniquely identifies their source.

Referencing is an important part of your academic work. Good referencing:

  • Demonstrates the depth and quality of your research
  • Provides evidence to support the arguments that you are making in your assignment
  • Assists the reader to locate the sources that you have referred to
  • Acknowledges the work of other researchers and helps to avoid plagiarism.

Referencing style guides

There are a number of referencing styles available. For this unit you will need to use either the APA 7th or Chicago 17th Author-Date style. Please check with your tutor to see which one you are required to use.

To format your references refer to the appropriate Curtin Library referencing guide, which provide guidance and examples for in-text citations and reference list entries:

Useful resources:

Read: Communications toolkit Chapter 5: Referencing