Cite It Right! Workshop

A citation is reliable way to lead your reader back to the materials you used in your research.

A citation gives credit to an author for their research, writings and ideas.

When you use citations you are

• showing that you know how to use information well,
• creating credibility for your paper by providing good quality sources and good quality citations for them.
• giving credit to the authors of material you used,
• avoiding plagiarism,

What do I include in a citation?

MLA requires as much of the following information as possible:

Author's name
Title of the work
Title of the website
Name of the website sponsor
Date of the most recent update
URL - web address
Date of access (or the date you looked at the website)

APA requires as much of the following information as possible:

Author's name
Date of publication or update
Title of the source
URL   or
DOI - Digital Object Identifier  - for online newspaper, magazine or journal articles.

CMS or Chicago Manual of Style requires as much of the following information as possible:

Author's name
Title of the work
Title of the source
Date of publication or update
URL

A URL or web address is not enough information for a citation in any paper or project.
Sometimes a URL will lead to a dead link so more details about your source are needed.  

Here are examples of a book citation in

MLA:

Works Cited page citation:

English, Darby. How to See a Work of Art in Total Darkness. MIT Press, 2010.

In text citation in your paper using the author's name:

(English)

APA7:

References page citation:

English, D. (2010). How to see a work of art in total darkness. MIT Press.

In text citation in your paper using the author's name and date:

(English, 2010)

Chicago Manual Style:

Bibliography page citation:

English, Darby. How to See a Work of Art in Total Darkness. MIT Press, 2010.

In text citation in your paper:

Darby English, How to See a Work of Art in Total Darkness (MIT Press, 2010), pp. 11.