Learn to Write

Finding and Using Sources

Many writing assignments require you to use other people's words and ideas alongside your own. Sometimes you already know what resources you should use⁠—such as a novel or class reading⁠—but assignments often need you to find resources on your own. Giving credit to the resources you were influenced by in a recognizable and appropriate way is a very important skill when completing academic writing assignments.

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What is Citation?

Citation enables you to show that you took words, ideas, or images from somewhere else and used them in your own work. It allows you to give credit to sources used and to distinguish your ideas from the ideas of others. 

Citations appear throughout a written work and (in a longer form) in a list of references.

A reference includes the following information:

• Name of the author(s)
• Title of work
• Where the work is published (ex. name and location of company, website URL, etc.)
• The date of publication
• Page numbers

The order in which this information occurs in your citation is called style. Your instructor will tell you to use either APA or MLA Style.

Six Steps to Proper Citation

1. Read the source.
2. Identify an idea that you want to include in your writing.
3. Write a sentence (including the information you want to include from your source) on your own. Include the information either by paraphrasing or directly quoting.
4. Add an in-text citation to identify the source that influenced you AND to refer your reader to your reference list.
5. Repeat this process every time you want to add in outside information to your writing.
6. Keep track of the sources you have used and when you are editing, create your reference list in the style that your instructor has asked for (APA or MLA).

In-text citations

If you've used someone else's words or put someone else's ideas into your own words, you need to show it. Give credit to the resources you've used in the body of your paper through the use of in-text citations.

• short acknowledgements to identify which source was used to influence your writing;
• appear in any and all sentences that have outside information - this might mean that most of your sentences contain an in-text citation
• may or may not include a specific page number, depending on the citation style and method of adding outside information; and
• can be added inside your sentence (narrative OR in prose) or at the end of your sentence (parenthetical).

Managing References

These tools can help you document and format your references.