Today you will turn each entry in your research log into a full reference, which says who made it and where to find it. Anything you cannot reference comes out of your project.
A reference is the credit for one source, so a reader could find it again. It has five parts, in this order:
- creator or organisation
- title or description
- link
- the date accessed, which is the day you opened it
- licence or permission, which says how you may use it
Check the example against them. What would make a reference useless?
Log note: "article about teen sleep and phones, useful stats"
Here is the same source written as a complete reference. The five parts come in order, with a full stop after each one.
Sleep Health Ireland. Teen sleep and phone use: what the research shows. https://sleephealth.example/teen-phones. Accessed 12 March 2025. Licence: free to read and to share a link to it, but not free to copy the full text.
If you cannot name the creator, find a working link, or show the licence for an image, clip or sound you reused, you cannot credit that source properly. Remove it or replace it, and never leave it uncredited.
Open your research log and your blank reference list, and write a full reference for each source. Use the template below for each one. It has the same parts, in the same order, as the template on the board.
Creator: ____
Title or description: ____
Link: ____
Date accessed: ____
Licence or permission (you must have this for an image, clip or sound you reused): ____
If you used AI
Name of the AI tool: ____
What you used it for: ____
Date you used it: ____
Note: This was AI-generated.
If your log has fewer than three sources you can use, spend the first five minutes adding to it. Look for captions in your draft, check the files you downloaded, and look through your browser history.
- Write a full reference for the first entry in your log, then mark it referenced in your log.
- If you cannot find one of the parts, mark the entry incomplete and move on. Do not make up details you cannot check.
- Keep going until every source you can still trace has a reference.
If you used AI for ideas, wording or pictures, give it its own reference too.
Partway through, your teacher will call a stand-and-show. When that happens, stand and hold up one finished reference or one incomplete entry for 60 seconds, then get back to work.
Before you finish, check that:
- every source you can trace has a full reference
- every incomplete entry is clearly marked, not skipped
- your reference list is saved the class way
Now deal with every entry you marked incomplete.
- Spend about four minutes looking for what is missing, by opening the link again, checking your browser history, or searching for the page by its title. If you find it, finish the reference. After four minutes, stop searching.
- For anything you still cannot trace, either replace it with a source you can fully credit or remove it from your draft and log. If you need more time, write down a plan to find a replacement before your teacher next checks your project, instead of making up a credit.
- Write a one-line note for each saying what you did and why.
- Save your updated reference list and log the class way.
If you have about two minutes left, do a partner check. Swap lists, and your partner names one reference that is clear and one that is still missing a part. Note the gap, then fix it before next session.
Before you finish, check that:
- every incomplete entry has a note saying whether you replaced it, removed it or plan to replace it
- every source left in your project has a full reference
- your list is saved the class way
Think about what today changed. Your reference list is not an extra job at the end. It is part of the proof of how you made your project, because it shows where everything came from.
As a class, say the rule out loud. If you cannot credit something, you do not keep it. You followed this rule earlier in the project when you were finding material, and today you used it on the whole thing.
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