Formatting and Documentation
Citing sources is an academic convention for keeping track of which sources influenced your own thinking and research. (See Chapter 15 for many good reasons why you should cite others’ work.)
Most citations require two parts:
- The full bibliographic citation on the Bibliography page or References page, or Works Cited page of your final product.
- An indication within your text (usually author and publication date and maybe the page number from which you are quoting) that tells your reader where you have used something that needs a citation.
With your in-text citation, your reader will be able to tell which full bibliographic citation you are referring to by paying attention to the author’s name and publication date.
Let’s look at an example.
Example
Here’s a citation in the text of an academic paper (using APA Style):
Studies have shown that compared to passive learning, which occurs when students observe a lecture, students will learn more and will retain that learning longer if more active methods of teaching and learning are used (Bonwell and Eison 1991; Fink 2003).
The information in parentheses coordinates with a list of full citations at the end of the paper.
At the end of the paper, these bibliographic entries appear in a reference list:
Bonwell, C. G., and Eison, J. A.1991. “Active learning: Creating excitement in the classroom.” ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Rep. No. 1, George Washington Univ., Washington, D.C.
Fink, L. D. 2003. Creating significant learning experiences, Wiley, New York.
Citation Styles
Citation styles are a set of conventions or rules for giving credit to source material. Different disciplines use different styles. For instance, you are likely familiar with the Modern Language Association (MLA) style from English or writing classes and humanities classes, since this style is most commonly used in the arts and humanities.
American Psychological Association (APA) styles are most commonly used in social sciences and science classes at CAC.
Differences in Citation Styles
The image below shows bibliographic citations in four common styles. Notice that they contain information about who the author is, article title, journal title, publication year, and information about volume, issue, and pages. Notice also the small differences in punctuation, order of the elements, and formatting that do make a difference.
Differences between citation practices occur mainly in formatting. Compare citation elements (including the punctuation and spacing) in the same color to see how each style handles their information.This part of the textbook will introduce you to the particulars for citing sources in APA and MLA formats since those are the ones most commonly used in CAC classes.
Please note that the CAC Library and Learning Center also offer assistance for citing sources at any point in a project as well as various resources for citing.
Attributions
3.3 Citations and Citation Styles by Leah Wahlin is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Citation and Citation Styles by Lumen Learning is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Citation and Citation Styles by Teaching & Learning at Ohio State University Libraries is licensed under CC BY 4.0
