Citations

Why We Cite

All quality academic writing includes information learned from others along with one's own unique analysis and contributions. Citation allows us to acknowledge the contributions of others to our own work, to distinguish for our readers which ideas are our own and which are borrowed, and to give our readers a path by which they can trace the intellectual evolution of the ideas being presented. To fail to distinguish our original ideas from those of our forebears is plagiarism, "the act of appropriating the literary composition of another author, or excerpts, ideas, or passages therefrom, and passing the material off as one's own creation." (Quote: West's Encyclopedia of American Law) (Source: University of North Carolina Libraries)

If you read the paragraph above carefully, you will have noted that two sources were cited.  The first source was for the paragraph itself, taken from a page on the University of North Carolina Libraries' web site.  The second source is for the quote which the writer of the paragraph used to define plagiarism.

Citing sources is not only necessary in order to avoid plagiarism.  Citations also provide a way for the reader to retrieve your sources and to review them in an effort to gain insight into how you might have reached certain conclusions or interpreted the original work.

A citation includes specific information; some common fields include author(s), title, publisher, date and place of publication, volume and page number(s).  The specific fields that are included in a citation are determined by the type of source, such as a book or a periodical article.  Check with your individual instructors to find out which style of citation they prefer as these will vary according to the discipline.

Copies of the three most used style manuals are available at the Reference Desk.  These manuals are definitive resources and should be consulted if you are uncertain about how to cite a particular source.

The most commonly used style manuals are:

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.  Used primarily in the Humanities.

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.  Used primarily in the Behavioral Sciences, Education and Nursing.

Chicago Manual of Style.  Used primarily in History.

Other, less frequently used, style manuals include Turabian and CSE, the Council of Science Editors.

Remember, always check with your instructor before you begin to format your citations.  If you use MLA style and your instructor prefers APA, your citations will be wrong.