Research Skills: A Blog Series from your NOVA Online Library staff

Citing Your Sources

citation neededReally, the hardest part of doing research is finding the best sources and completing your paper or assignment using those sources. Citing them should be the easy part. But students tend to get pretty stressed out when it comes to citations. No worries, though, we can help.

First, why is it important to cite? There are really 2 main reasons:

1) Readers of your paper or research should be able to find where you got your information, even if your information came from online videos, podcasts, or social media. If you use or refer to images, sound, or music, your readers should be able to find those sources. By citing your sources, you give your readers a chance to utilize those same resources out of interest, or even to check your facts.

All citation styles, e.g. MLA and APA, try to include all the information needed for someone to track down that source.

2) You need to give credit to the creators/authors of the information you use. This is key to academic integrity and avoiding plagiarism.

For information on formatting, in-text citations, and reference lists, take a look at the style guides below:

You can also see the following sites for more help:

Upcoming Citation Webinars (THIS WEEK!):

Go to the NOVA Online Webinars schedule to sign up for the following citation webinars:

Citation Basics–APA Style

Make sure you’re citing your work correctly!  This 30 minute webinar will go through the basics of the APA citation style. We will cover general formatting, in-text citations, and the reference list.

Tuesday, March 18, Noon – 12:30 pm

Thursday, March 20, 6:00 – 6:30 pm

Citation Basics–MLA Style

Make sure you’re citing your work correctly!  This 30 minute webinar will go through the basics of the MLA citation style. We will cover general formatting, in-text citations, and the reference list.

 Monday, March 17, 6:00 – 6:30 pm

Thursday, March 20, Noon – 12:30 pm