Citing Sources

Why Cite?

There are three purposes to citation:

• To give credit: when you provide a citation for a quotation or idea, you give credit to the person who came up with those words or that idea
• To show authority: when you cite a source, you show your reader that you've done your research and are not making facts up.
• To help your reader: A correct citation will make it possible for your reader to find the resources you used and the words or ideas that you cited.

How Do I Cite?

A citation entry needs to include information that identifies the source you used, like the author, the title, and the year of publication, among some other elements. At the end of your paper, you will usually list citation entries for all of the sources you used. This list is called "works cited," "bibliography," or "references." In addition, within your paper, you will note each time you have referred to a source, using an "in-text citation" or a footnote.

 There are different citation styles. Each style tells you:

• How to format the author, title, year, and other identifying information in your final list of sources
• Whether to use in-text citation or footnotes to note when you have used a source
• In addition, the citation style you use will give you guidelines about how to format your paper

Why Are There Multiple Citation Styles?

Not to make your life difficult! Ask your professor what style to use. Usually, though, what style you use depends on what academic discipline you are working in.  For example, if you write a paper for an English class, usually you will use MLA style. If you write a paper for a psychology class, usually you will use APA. In the menu on the left, there is specific information on common citation formats

Formatting Your Paper

Each style guide will also tell you how you should format your paper--things like margins, font size, headings, title, punctuation, etc

What is Citation?