Introduction to Citing

Worth Weller

Why Cite?

• There are four reasons for citations:

1. your teacher told you that you had to have them

2. they show that you are knowledgeable

3. they help other people follow your research

4. they preclude any questions of accidental plagiarism

Where do I start?

• With your handbook

Step two:

• The second step is to make sure you know what style of citation your teacher wants you to follow. Although there are several common formats for citations, the most common are:

• APA (American Psychological Association)

• MLA (Modern Language Association)

Now we’re ready:

• Once you know which format you will follow, the process divides itself automatically into two areas:

• In-text documentation (parenthetical citations)

• end-of-text citations (MLA calls this list “works cited” while APA call this list “references”)

In-text citations:

• Commonly known as parenthetical citations (because they come inside parentheses) these are used in the text of an essay to document quotations, paraphrases and summaries.

• They are kept very short.

The list of sources

• The works cited list or list of references comes at the end of your essay, on its own page.

• Each entry contains a variety of important items, and the order of these items, as well as the punctuation separating them is critical.

Let’s do the works cited list first:

• Open your handbook to the citation standard you intend to follow and find the pages that give a model for your works cited or references list and also the pages that give individual examples of each kind of citations.

• The challenge now is to match your reference work with one of the categories given in the handbook.

Mix and match:

• You will need to know the answers to these types of questions:

• Do I have a book with one author? Several authors?• Do I have a book that is edited and my source is a

chapter by a specific author?• Do I have an article from a journal? A newspaper?• Is my source a web site?• Is it a TV show?• Is it from a personal interview?

Look for the examples:

• Your handbook treats each answer differently. • So you must carefully match your type of source

to the example in the handbook.• Once you’ve made the correct match, then you

have to find the appropriate information called for. • In most cases, the information you need is on the

book’s title page, on the back of the title page, or in the table of contents.

Watch your formatting:

• Note that citation standards call for a very specific format for your works cited or reference list.

• The entries, in normal text, are alphabetized by author, flush left, with a five space indent on the second line.

• Maintain normal double spacing throughout and pay attention to the punctuation.

Example

Now do the in-text citations

• In MLA citations, if you have mentioned the author in the sentence or near the quote you are using, all you need is the page number in the citation (make sure you have been jotting these down).

• Watch the punctuation—often the ending period comes after the final quote mark, after the parenthetical citation.

The Golden Rule:

– The bottom line about citations is this: you can’t do it without a recent, reliable handbook.

– And remember the Golden Rule—be precise!