Citations are a big part of academic writing. One of the reasons we use citations is so that others can find our sources, either to confirm the argument, or to get more information about that 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 we use citations is to avoid plagiarism. Plagiarism is the act of using someone else's words or ideas without crediting them. This can be done by not citing a source you got information from, or by taking credit for a quote from someone else by not putting it in your own words, or 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, and some resources to help you!
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association by 
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers by 
The Chicago Manual of Style by 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.
