Your instructor should tell you which citation style he or she wants you to use. Click on the appropriate link below to learn how to format your paper and cite your sources according to a particular style.
Cite all outside sources you use in your research paper! Citing is required for sources you:
Quote word-for-word,
Paraphrase (rewrite using your own words), and
Summarize (rewrite the main concept or idea in your own words).
It's important to make sure you collect all the information you need to cite a source as you gather your information so that you won't need to look it up again, so:
As you explore your topic, you'll discover and read information from many different sources. With each new source, you'll need to decide if you want to use it. To help you make this decision, you'll ask yourself questions about the source like:
Each of these elements (author, title, publisher, location, publication date) will become part of your citation. As you work, you'll want to keep track of each of these elements so that creating your citations will be easier.