This guide will help you to:
Properly cite sources in multiple popular citation styles
Find resources for your own research and class projects using reference pages and/or bibliographies
Learn more about citation practices and avoiding plagiarism
There are many citation formats, most are connected to fields of research and it's requirements. Check with your instructor to ensure you use the correct format. Link to individual style guides below.
Citing a source gives credit to others' work that contributed to your own project, whether you included or referenced a quotation, idea, statistic or image. By citing sources, you are avoiding plagiarizing the work of others. A citation or reference gives identifying information for a source and allows your readers or viewers to find them. Citations appear within the text of work as well as a reference list or bibliography.
Cite sources to document all facts that you mention that are not common knowledge.
If you are stating word-for-word what someone else has already written, you must put quotes around those words and give credit to the original author.
Summarizing and paraphrasing are two related practices but they are not the same.
All citations no matter the style is made up of information that helps readers find your sources. Identifying information often included in a citation or reference:
Free web-based tools and guides for creating citations. Citation generators rely on the user’s input and automation, so understanding basic rules allow you to input correctly and notice if there are errors.