ABSTRACT
A reference is the way that your essay points to a previously published piece of work or to the source of any information that you use in your essay. References can also be called citations, and when you make a reference in your essay you are citing what somebody else has said or done previously. A reference is like a note to your readers telling them about something in a book or a journal or some other source. In one sense you are referring to the work in that you are mentioning it. In another sense you are referring your readers to the work in that you are pointing them towards it.
