This category page lists all questions related to citing and referencing in essays. By clicking on any question, you will be redirected to the corresponding answer page.
- How to Cite Articles in Essays?
- How to Cite a Website in an Essay?
- How to Introduce a Quote in an Essay?
- How to Paraphrase?
- What’s the difference between paraphrasing and summarizing?
Why is Citing Important?
In the academic field, citing is an important task. To avoid plagiarism and other problems, students have to learn how to cite properly. They should use the correct writing style while creating a reference list or bibliography for their research paper. It takes time and effort to do that but after finishing this task, they will be able to write a perfect academic paper.
The goal of citing or recording the sources you utilized in your study is highly significant:
- It properly acknowledges the authors of the words and ideas that you used in your work.
- It enables individuals reading your work to find your references and discover more about the concepts you discuss.
- It helps you avoid plagiarism in your writing, and plagiarism can often lead to very negative consequences.
When to cite your sources?
There are a few different instances in which you should cite your sources:
- When you insert an exact quotation
- When you rephrase a concept from a source
- When summarizing a work
All of your sources should be listed in the References or Works Cited section of your paper.
What to cite?
The general rule is to include anything that you read and consulted in your research, even if you only glanced at it or only quoted a sentence.
A source can come from another discipline or field of study and still be relevant and useful to your study.
For example:
- Uncommonly known facts, figures, thoughts, or other material
- Ideas, phrases, beliefs, or precise terminology utilized in previous works by someone else
- Books, book chapters, articles, web pages, theses, and other publications must all be mentioned
- Actual words of another person should be quoted and referenced
What not to cite?
Brief quotes such as the ones found in newspaper articles, brief phrases (e.g., “I agree”), and very short poems should not be quoted in their entirety. In these cases, you should paraphrase the material instead of quoting it.
Informal interviews or conversations with someone do not require citation unless another person is present and would be identified as an interviewee (e.g., a student has a ten-minute conversation with a professor). Conversations that are part of your own general experiences or reflections do not require citation.