The citation concept contains some words that may be unfamiliar to you. Below are definitions of the terms found in bold throughout the guide.
A bibliography is a list of references that typically appears at the end of a paper. Your bibliography should contain a reference for each work that you quote, paraphrase, summarize or consult anywhere in your paper.
A citation contains information about another author's work, such as the author's name, the date of publication, the title and information about the publisher. Citations typically contain two parts, the in-text citation or footnote and the reference list citation. You should include citations in your paper each time you use another author's work.
Academic departments, as well as scholarly journals, usually adopt a set of rules for how to write, cite and format academic papers. These rules are collectively called a citation style. Some common citation styles are APA, MLA and Chicago.
In-text citations appear in the body of your paper, in parentheses directly after each instance of quoting, paraphrasing or summarizing another author's work. Different citation styles require different information be included in the in-text citation. Some styles require use of a footnote instead.
When citing scholarly articles, your citations will usually contain issue and volume numbers. Typically, each new collection of articles is assigned a new issue number. A year's worth of issues is usually assigned a volume number.
Some citation styles require you to use a footnote after each instance of quoting, paraphrasing or summarizing another author's work, instead of an in-text citation.
A reference contains complete information about another author's work and is usually found in the bibliography or reference list at the end of a paper. You should create a reference every time you quote, paraphrase or summarize another author. The reference should allow your reader to find a copy of the book or article that you've used in your paper.
The reference list, also called works cited in some styles, is a complete listing of all the references you've included in your paper.
When you include a quote or paraphrase of another author's work, it's stylisticly a good idea to introduce the author and name of work to your audience. This introduction is called the signal phrase.
The rules of a particular citation style are published in a style guide. These guides are updated from time to time, and copies are available in the library.
When citing scholarly articles, your citations will usually contain issue and volume numbers. Typically, each new collection of articles is assigned a new issue number. A year's worth of issues is usually assigned a volume number.
The works cited section, also called a reference list in some styles, is a complete listing of all the references you've included in your paper.
These guidess will familiarize yourself with APA, MLA and Chicago citation styles.
If you are not sure which citation style is used by your department, use the stylelist guide.
There is also a link to setting up Zotero to manage your citations!
Council of Writing Program Administrators (2003). Defining and avoiding plagiarism: The WPA statement of best practices. Author.
Gammage, J. (2005, November 20). Who owns an idea? Scholars take sides. The Boston Globe.
Hacker, D., & Fister, B. (n.d.). Research and documentation online (5th ed). Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) (2012). Research and citation resources. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, The Writing Center (2012). Handouts and demos. Chapel Hill, NC: Author.
American Psychological Association. (2011). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Hacker, D. (2008). A pocket style manual. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Hacker, D., & Sommers, N. I. (2010). The Bedford handbook. Boston, MA: St. Martin's.
Gibaldi, J., & Modern Language Association of America. (2009). MLA handbook for writers of research papers (7th ed.). New York, NY: Modern Language Association of America.
The Chicago manual of style (16th ed.). (2010). Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.