Citation Help

1. Make sure you understand what type of citation your professor wants you to use.  Double check your syllabus and if still in doubt ask your professor.

2. Know what you are citing: book, a scholarly journal article, a government document, image or an internet resource.

3. Use the resources in this guide to find resources on how to properly cite. 

You must cite:

• Facts, figures, ideas, or other information that is not common knowledge
• Ideas, words, theories, or exact language that another person used in other publications
• Publications that must be cited include:  books, book chapters, articles, web pages, theses, etc.
• Another person's exact words should be quoted and cited to show proper credit 

When in doubt, be safe and cite your source!

Source: MIT Libraries

It's important to cite sources you used in your research for several reasons:

• To show your reader you've done proper research by listing sources you used to get your information
• To be a responsible scholar by giving credit to other researchers and acknowledging their ideas
• To avoid plagiarism by quoting words and ideas used by other authors
• To allow your reader to track down the sources you used by citing them accurately in your paper by way of footnotes, a bibliography or reference list

Source: MIT Libraries

Source: sccclibrary