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2.6 Citing Your Sources

Questions to consider:

  • Why is it important to cite all your sources?
  • What is the correct way to cite sources?

Now that you have learned effective strategies for searching for, accessing, and evaluating sources, review the final stage of the research process, using sources in your project. Let’s look at the basics about citations, using sources ethically, and copyright.

Why Cite Sources?

It is important to cite your sources in order to:

  • meet the requirements for your assignment
  • give the original creators credit for their ideas
  • help your readers find and learn from the sources you used
  • lend credibility to your argument

You are likely familiar with the first three reasons already, so let’s examine the last one in more detail. How does citing sources lend credibility to your argument? Research projects involve reading, analyzing, and synthesizing information from multiple sources and using their ideas to inform your work. There is a common misconception that academic research consists of one person making amazing breakthroughs all alone in their lab or office, but that’s not what usually happens in most cases. Instead, research is a process where scholars build on older work while sharing their new ideas. When you cite others’ research, you are doing the same thing. By citing a scholar that has done research on your topic area, you are using their authority and experience to support your claims and adding your own insights.

Cite Purposefully

Citations aren’t just there to fill up space. Each citation you include in your work should be relevant and serve a purpose. Maybe you agree with the author and wish to further explore their main points. Or perhaps you disagree with their conclusions and wish to explain your own perspectives. In either case, the ideas you are citing must somehow add to your argument. Keep in mind that no single article or book will be exactly what you need. To strengthen your argument, you need to examine the work of multiple authors.

When to Cite?

Whenever you use someone else’s ideas, you need to cite them. This is true for any source where there is interpretation involved (opinions, research findings, recent discoveries, statistics, etc). No matter where ideas come from you still need to cite them, whether they are from images, tables, charts, statistics, websites, podcasts, interviews, emails, speeches, songs, movies, or any other source.

There are times when an exact quote is the best option for your work, but most of the time, you’ll be paraphrasing the sources you cite. Paraphrasing refers to incorporating someone else’s ideas into your work and restating them in your own words. This means more than simply swapping out a few words for synonyms. When you paraphrase, you analyze the ideas presented, synthesize that information, and summarize it while citing the original source. By paraphrasing well, you demonstrate that you have understood an author’s ideas, and that you can restate them without altering the author’s meaning.

Tips for Paraphrasing

1  2 3
Understand your source Be true to the source Acknowledge the source

Figure 2.10 Shows three tips for paraphrasing.

Tips for Paraphrasing

  • Understand your source: when you understand someone else’s perspective and how it fits into your argument, only then can you put those ideas in your own words. Most writing guides will recommend that you read and reflect on the main points that may be relevant to your project.
  • Be true to the source: you must accurately represent the message of the original author in your paraphrasing. This doesn’t mean you have to agree with the ideas, just that you explain them accurately.
  • Acknowledge the source: you must always cite the source whenever you paraphrase. Citing acknowledges that you are using someone else’s ideas whether or not you are using the exact words of the original author. Not citing paraphrased material is plagiarism. Your work is strengthened when you show that you have done your research; citing other writers’ works is your evidence!

Common knowledge is factual information that can easily be verified in multiple authoritative sources (e.g., encyclopedias, dictionaries, reputable websites, and books). You always need to cite things like opinions, ideas, or new research findings, but well- established facts don’t need citations. Even if it’s something new to you, if it’s a long-held fact, it is considered common knowledge and doesn’t need to be cited.

Here are some types of common knowledge, with examples of each:

  • Widely known facts: that water boils at 100° Celsius.
  • Uncontested historical dates: 1776 was the year the Declaration of Independence was signed in the United States of America.
  • Well-known cultural references, such as important facts, people, or historical events within that culture: Suleiman the Magnificent was the longest ruling sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

How to Cite?

Once you have done your research and found sources, the next step is working on the assignment. As you complete your work, you will need to communicate your ideas to your audience. You will also need to demonstrate that you know how to integrate others’ ideas in your writing in an ethical, clear, and consistent way. This means incorporating citations when paraphrasing or using direct quotes.

Citation style manuals are guides that help you write particular types of papers (research reports, technical reports, and theses). They also have rules for how to cite sources properly and consistently. Your professor will usually tell you which style manual you should follow for assignments in their class. If not, you should ask.

In addition to helping you configure citations, style manuals also help you structure your writing in a way that is understood by an audience of subject experts. The most common styles used for college writing are APA, MLA and Chicago.

Covers of MLA, APA, and Chicago style manuals displayed side by side.
Figure 2.11 Covers of MLA, APA, and Chicago writing styles manuals.
  • APA is mostly used in the Sciences and Social Sciences
  • MLA is used in many of the Humanities
  • Chicago style is the preferred style for History and Music

Citation Examples

A book citation includes the author, title, publisher and year of publication. Below is a citation for a book in Chicago style:

Frank, Frederick S. The First Gothics: A Critical Guide to the English Gothic Novel. Garland Publishing, 1987.

A book chapter citation contains all the elements of a book citation, plus some extra pieces that indicate the citation is for part of a book, rather than the whole book. These commonly include an editor’s name, the chapter title in addition to the book title, and page numbers for the chapter. Generally, a book chapter citation includes two sets of names. The first is the author(s) of the book chapter being cited. The second set represents the editor(s) for the entire book. Below is a citation for a book chapter in MLA style:

Neves, Marcos Fava, and Luciano Thomé e Castro, “Inserting small holders into sustainable value chains.” In Handbook of Business Practices and Growth in Emerging Markets, ed. Satyendra Singh. (Singapore: World Scientific, 2010), 235-253.

Journal article: Typical article citation elements include author and title of the article, journal name, journal volume and issue numbers. Below is an example of an article citation in APA style:

Upadhyay, R. & Rao, J.M. (2012). Microwave-assisted extraction of chlorogenic acids from green coffee beans. Food Chemistry, 130(1), 184-188. doi: 10.1016/ j.foodchem.2011.06.057

Some styles have quick guides available online. The SAC library also has copies of many different style manuals. To find style manuals in your area of study, talk with your professors or a subject specialist librarian, or visit the Writing Center.

Where to Cite?

Prepare to cite in TWO places:

  • In the body of writing where you
    • Quote
    • Paraphrase
    • Summarize
    • Use or refer to specific audiovisual representations (data, images, tables, figures, video clips, podcasts, performances, etc.)
  • In a list of sources at the end of your work or paper, called
    • References (APA)
    • Works Cited (MLA)
    • Bibliography

At the end of your project, you’ll need to compile the sources you used into a bibliography. A bibliography, also called “references” or “works cited,” is a comprehensive list of citations at the end of a project. The rules for organizing and formatting a bibliography differ depending on which style you are using. The style manual should provide guidance for how to do this consistently.

The example below shows how the three citations the student used within the body of the text would appear in the corresponding list of sources for the three different citation styles. The first entry is for a book, the second for an online article, and the third for a book chapter.

APA Style: In-text citations (author/date) and corresponding Reference List entry

Figure 2.12

Although Canada’s multicultural policy is liberal and democratic in its goals, there are reasons to be skeptical about its value. Detractors argue that the state should not enshrine differences into policy, but should rather aim to treat everyone the same, or more accurately, provide the conditions such that all members of society can have access to equal opportunities (Barry, 2001). One could even argue that a multicultural policy magnifies cultural differences instead of promoting a homogeneous diversity. The policy has also been attacked for promoting the interests of the English-Canadian majority (Day & Sadick, 2002). Mitchell (1996) goes even further with this, arguing that it is a policy designed to further the capitalist interests of the “elites”.

At the core of the argument, however, is the question of whether or not the policy is any good…

References

Barry, B. (2001). Culture and equality: An egalitarian critique of multiculturalism. Harvard University Press.

Day, R. F., & Sadick, T. (2002). The BC land question, liberal multiculturalism, and the spectre of aboriginal nationhood. BC Studies, 134, 5-34. https://doi.org/10.14288/bcs/v0i134.162

Mitchell, K. (1996). In whose interest? Transnational capital and the production of multiculturalism in Canada. In R. Wilson, & W. Dissanayake (Eds.), Global/Local: Cultural production and the transnational imaginary (pp. 219-254). Duke University Press.

MLA Style: In-text citations (author/page) and corresponding Work Cited list entry

Figure 2.13

Although Canada’s multicultural policy is liberal and democratic in its goals, there are reasons to be skeptical about its value. Detractors argue that the state should not enshrine differences into policy, but should rather aim to treat everyone the same, or more accurately, provide the conditions such that all members of society can have access to equal opportunities (Barry 118). One could even argue that a multicultural policy magnifies cultural differences instead of promoting a homogeneous diversity. The policy has also been attacked for promoting the interests of the English-Canadian majority (Day and Sadick 30). Mitchell goes even further with this, arguing that it is a policy designed to further the capitalist interests of the “elites”. (225)

At the core of the argument, however, is the question of whether or not the policy is any good…

Works Cited

Barry, Brian. Culture and Equality: An Egalitarian Critique of Multiculturalism. Harvard UP, 2001.

Day, Richard F., & Tonio Sadick. “The BC Land Question, Liberal Multiculturalism, and the Spectre of Aboriginal Nationhood. BC Studies, vol. 134, Summer 2002, pp. 5-34. doi.org/10.14288/bcs/v0i134.162

Mitchell, Katharyne. “In Whose Interest? Transnational Capital and the Production of Multiculturalism in Canada.” Global/Local: Cultural Production and the Transnational Imaginary, edited by Rob Wilson, & Wimal Dissanayake Duke UP, 1996, pp. 219-254.

In this course you will practice how to find, read, summarize, and cite peer-reviewed journal articles. The Peer-reviewed Journal Article Summary Worksheet found in Appendix 3 will guide you through the article summary process.

Quick Quiz 2.6

  1. When do you need to cite your sources?
  2. What is the appropriate way to paraphrase?

Summary

This chapter explored what thinking means and how thinking may impact you as a college student. College students must be prepared to think critically. This includes weighing options, consulting data, gathering opinions, making choices, and then evaluating those decisions. Throughout many of your courses, it will be important to recognize that you must make efforts to ask questions, conduct research, limit assumptions, recognize biases, and gather multiple options. That is why determining the best approach to any given problem and generating more than one possible solution will leave you with options. More than one solution will allow you to feel more in control whether it is for an assignment or your everyday life.

This is why information literacy and knowing how to access reliable information is a critical life skill. As a college student, your job is to continuously seek out information through research. Popular and scholarly peer reviewed information can help you conduct research effectively. It is important to know when to use various resources and how to find them. You should also know how to responsibly use artificial intelligence. Do not forget that help is available to you through the campus Library. By utilizing tools such as the CRAAP test to determine if your source information is accurate, reliable, and relevant.

When researching, college students must be diligent in upholding academic integrity by citing all sources of information. In all your academic work, unless information is common knowledge, paraphrasing and quoting requires careful, relevant, and purposeful citation to avoid plagiarism. The type of citation style to use is often determined by the instructor or subject. Remember, the San Antonio College Library is equipped to help you conduct research, evaluate information and maintain academic integrity effectively.

Works Cited

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SAC Learning Frameworks Copyright © by Deanna Lauer. All Rights Reserved.

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