Citations are a big part of academic writing. As researchers, we use citations so that others can find our sources, either to confirm arguments or to get more information about a particular aspect of your paper. This is why writing correct citations is so important: you want your readers to be able to find out more about your sources!
Another reason to use citations is to avoid plagiarism. Plagiarism means using someone else's words or ideas without giving proper credit. This can be done by not citing a source you got information from, by taking credit for a quote from someone else by not putting it in your own words and attributing the idea, or by not putting it in quotation marks.
Thankfully, there's an easy way to avoid plagiarism--citations! Read on for more information on how to write citations as well as resources to help you use them in your assignments.
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.)This chart, made by Purdue OWL , shows examples of how to cite different types of sources in multiple styles, and can be used as a quick reference. For more detailed explanations, please click the tabs above for each citation style.
Zotero is a free program that helps you keep track of your sources, and generates citations for those sources. Zotero is free to download and use (up to 300 MB of space). To begin, create a Zotero account here, then download Zotero Standalone and the browser connector here.
If you need assistance with this, open the directions below, or ask a librarian for help.
If you have any questions about using citations or formatting your paper correctly, you can visit the library on the Lower Level of the Information Commons or email reference@annamaria.edu.
