Your instructor has told you to that you need to cite your sources for your assignment... what does that mean?
Citations are used in academic papers as a way of giving credit to ideas or exact quotes that are not your own. You'll need to use a citation when:
- using someone else's exact words (direct quotation)
- rephrasing someone else's ideas (paraphrasing)
- providing an overview of information in a book, article, or other source (summarizing)
- listing information that is not common knowledge, such as data or statistics
Typically, you will provide citations for each piece of information in two places: one in-text citation within your paper, and a longer citation in your reference list at the end of your paper.
This video from North Carolina State University provides a brief overview of citations:
Why should I care?
Citations are a requirement for academic assignments. But, there are reasons to cite your sources beyond the fact that your instructor said you have to! Citations are a way to:
- give credit to others for their work
- support your statements by showing what experts in the field think
- allow others to look up more information about your topic
How do I know what citation style to use?
There are different citation styles that will affect how you format your citations. Some of the most common styles are APA, MLA, Chicago, and CSE. Why isn't there just one citation style that we can all use? And why do citations require everything to be formatted in a certain way? The short answer is: academic tradition.
The long answer is:
- These different styles developed because the fields that use them created citation styles independently of each other and emphasize different things as important (for example, some value recency and some value where the information can be found)
- The formatting was created at a time when references were more commonly found in physical journals or books, so it was important to include all the necessary information in a way that made sense to someone looking up the source (for example, always italicizing the title of a book).
- Check the different styles in the left-hand menu to learn more about them and see which majors/classes commonly use them.
- If you are unsure which citation style to use, check with your professor to see if they have a preference.
I'm still confused... help!
You are not alone! Everyone, from first-year students to tenured faculty, has questions about citations from time to time. There are resources to help guide you through each citation style using the menu on the left-hand side of this page.