I completed an English degree a number of years ago and I'm currently half way through a Production Art Technology degree.
My Production Art Technology course maintains a heavy focus on Special FX Make-Up and Props. Throughout my time on both my English degree course and my current one I have, of course, needed to produce assignments. With all assignments comes the dreaded referencing process.
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| Just a little bit of my book collection ;) |
When I first began I found the process completely confusing. Even after becoming familar with it I wished I had a faster way to get it done. Because, quite honestly, it's SO tedious. It's my absolute least favourite part of writing an assignment. I hate it. The time spent trawling through books and sites looking desperately for page/website authors, publication years and dates....ugh!
I 1000% believe in always recognising other peoples' work. I think to use someone's work and not credit them for it appropriately is incredibly disrespectful, is plagiarism and of course very much illegal. So it's important that, as a student (or anyone else for that matter) you get your referencing correctly done.
Let's face it, referencing is quite difficult. And the fear of getting it wrong with such awful consequences can be intimidating. The struggle is so, so real. But there is light at the end of the long and tedious referencing tunnel for there are tools out there that can help!
RefMe are a free online reference generator. They make it fast and easy to put your citations together for your work. Using a tool like this will save you time, energy/sanity ;), and ensure your references are correct.
I was kindly asked to review RefMe's web tool and phone application. RefMe are widely recognised by many well known press and they are cited regularly on the BBC. LEGIT.
You can read more about their credentials here https://www.refme.com/blog/2015/04/07/hey-lets-talk-about-refme-for-once
I only wish I had found these tools sooner because seriously, they are amazing. I absolutely mean this. I will absolutely be using this website for my final year of study!
Being somewhat of a web design fanatic I appreciate good functionality on a website and RefMe did not let me down! Their site and phone application are both SO incredibly easy to use. I was pleasantly surprised at the fast and easy sign-up process but significantly more impressed with how stress-free their tools are to use and how fast I was able to produce references. The website runs quickly and efficiently too so there is no waiting around for anything to load.
So let's begin with their website tool. I'm of course using my own blog URL for this example ;)
When you are done registering (which is as simple as entering an email address and password, then you're done!) you will be presented with the page below where you can begin by naming your first project.
Once you have your project name all set, click the arrow on the far right side of the page (circled below) to get started creating some references.
This will bring in a side panel with a number of options. You can create literally ANY type of reference you need. In this case I chose web page but all other types of media are available in this list.
For the next stage you are required to enter the name of, or search for, the media you want to reference. (When referencing books you simply search for the author instead.) This could be a book or music title, a webpage name, a journal article, etc. Type the name of the media into the search box. Again, I used my own blog's URL here as an example.
Upon entering your details you will be presented with this box. This is where you can manually type in any details you're unable to locate on the site itself. There is a lack of information on this example since this is my blog URL but the tool is very good at finding this information for you and it will appear in each box on this page. Your results shouldn't be as blank as my own.
If you click the 'more fields' box below the form you are given even more options. So if you need an extensive amount of information for your references, you've got it quickly and easily!
Simply click 'save' and B-I-N-G-O, your reference appears in the large blank box. It will even give you the access information which is required when referencing websites in an assignment! Yay!
One of this site's best features is the fact that you can even use this tool to export your references! This is awesome because it saves SO much time. You can copy and paste the reference directly to any document you wish or you can use the options to export them to a word document, evernote, bibtex, and much more!
If you need another referencing style, click the box next to your referencing options (see below) for a long list of different styles...
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| Click here to view more referencing style options |
You will be taken to another page (below) where you can add your own style manually or search through RefMe's enormous database of styles.
With the website being so easy to use I downloaded the phone app for this tool for review purposes to see how it compared.
I was quite skeptical about a phone app for referencing but again, I was pleasantly surprised.
To download the app visit the Google Play Store, search for RefMe. The app will show up at the top. Hit 'install' and once the installation process is finished, you're ready to go.
The app itself is smooth, responsive and even has a handy scanning tool that you can use for when referencing books which I thought was great.
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| Search RefMe |
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| Once installed, you're ready to use the app! |
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| Projects you create on the site are available straight away on the app (provided you use the same e-mail address on the app as you did on the site |
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| You can use many different reference styles and there is an export option. The app has less export options than the website but you're still able to quickly compile your references together quickly and easily! |
Have you ever used RefMe before? I wish I had discovered this years ago. Oh the time it could have saved me!
Happy referencing!
Disclaimer: This post was produced in collaboration with RefMe. My opinions are 150% honest. I only choose to accept such collaborations if I like and believe in the products I am reviewing.
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