The Merchant
AnonymousUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Franklin
AnonymousUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Summoner
AnonymousUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The primary reason to cite your sources is to avoid plagiarism and give proper credit to the original author or creator. Other reasons for citing your sources:
Citing: Also called documenting or referencing. The recording of information (e.g., author, title, publisher, publication date, page numbers, database name, URL address, etc.) from a source (e.g., book, magazine article, web site) which allows an instructor or anyone to identify and locate a source. By citing your sources, you are also giving proper credit to those sources. This information is then formatted to a citation style (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago) specified by your instructor and inserted into your essay.
Common knowledge: Facts or ideas that are well know by many people and that can be found in numerous sources (e.g., Barack Hussein Obama II served as the 44th President of the United States from January 20, 2009, to January 20, 2017.).
Quotation: Also called a quote. Using someone's exact words. When you use a direct quote, place the passage in quotation marks and cite the source according to the citation style specified by your instructor (e.g., Using a direct excerpt from Barack Obama’s January 2009 inaugural address).
Paraphrasing: Using someone's ideas, but putting them in your own words. This is probably the skill you will use most when incorporating sources into your writing. Although you use your own words to paraphrase, you must still cite the source of the information (e.g., Using an excerpt from Barack Obama’s January 2009 inaugural address and putting it in your own words).
This video from the Pollak Library at California State University, Fullerton, offers an introduction to citing information found in books and articles, and to managing citations.
The OWL Purdue's Online Writing Lab for MLA.
The OWL Purdue's Online Writing Lab for APA.
The OWL Purdue's Online Writing Lab for Chicago Style.
This site is maintained by the librarians of George A. Spiva Library.
If you have a question or comment about the Library's LibGuides, please contact the site administrator.
