What is citation?

 

Simply put - to cite is to reference an outside source of information in your own work, such as a textbook, news site, or scholarly article.

 

Why do you need to cite?

 

Plagiarism counts as any work you put your name on that wasn't fully created by you. This can mean someone else heavily edited the work for you, or that you've included information from a source that you haven't given credit to. It should go without saying that copy-pasting from sources is plagiarism, and will result in an immediate fail. Plagiarism results in heavy academic penalties, including possible expulsion.

 

An important note to remember is that the more of your work that you can write in your own words, the better. Only quote a source when they've said it better than you can. Otherwise, you can always paraphrase their argument or the facts you retrieved and simply acknowledge how you learnt that information.

 

Imagine how upsetting it is when somebody else is praised for something you've done - that's reason one. Citation is respecting the efforts of the creators of your sources. The other reason is to give your reader an easy way to find the same sources you did, so that they can check your work or explore the topic further. Without sources, your work is unreliable.

 

When do you need to cite?

 

Any time you include information that isn't from your own brain, you need to cite. This includes direct quotations, images, and paraphrased material.

 

How do you cite?

 

APA (American Psychological Association) Style

 

Most VaCC courses use APA Style for citations, and some also require you to submit your papers with APA formatting. Don't be intimidated - here's the basics.

 

On a page attached to your essay or other assignment, include a list of all the sources you gathered your information from. You need to include the author(s), the title, the publication date, and the source (a link for a website or page number if you're using a print source). If this handout was a website, the citation would look like this:

 

            Baird, Caitlin. (2019, September). Research, Resources, and Referencing. The Lab at Vancouver Career College. Retrieved November 2020 from [https://caitlinbaird1.wixsite.com/thelab/citations]

 

If you reference something within the text, simply put (Author, Date of Publication) after the quotation or paraphrase. For instance, I could quote that "most VaCC courses use APA Style for citations" (Baird, 2019) and my brief parenthetical citation would lead the reader to your full reference page at the end.

 

Lots of excellent examples: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples

 

You can view complete style guides at: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines

 

If you're having trouble citing something, you can try this citation generator:

http://www.citationmachine.net/apa/cite-a-website

 

If you need a different style guide, such as Chicago or MLA, please see me and I will provide one.

 

Basic Style

 

If you aren't in need of a formal academic style, then you can cite more casually. This is similar to how sources are acknowledged in journalism and pop-academics (easy-to-read nonfiction). All you need to do is include the author and the title of the work in your sentence or in the immediately surrounding sentences. You can do this with parentheses, similar to APA in text citations, or within the sentence's own language.

 

Examples:       According to Author's Title, ....

                        In Title, Author argues that "quote quote quote" which means ....

                        This is a fact (Author, Year).              

           

Finding Resources

 

Most, if not all, required resources can be found under your course on My Campus. If you need to find more information, Google is your best friend. Search key terms. You can add terms like "scholarly" or "database" to help you find suitable content for your research. Check out the videos below for tips on utilizing search engines.

            Ask your instructors if they have any suggested sources for you to look at. I provide resource ideas here.

         Go to your local public library and sign up for a free library card - databases available include academic options, like JSTOR and EBCOS, and educational ones, like Lynda, which includes high quality videos on a massive range of topics. The librarians and other staff can help you access these resources as well as others (they can also help you cite!). Plus, as a bonus, your library card gives you access to fun things like subscription streaming services such as AcornTV or Kanopy which you can use at home.

            From home, access academic resources for free with Unpaywall.

            Further lectures on research are available via Office Skills (Chapter 4).

 

Remember to pick sources which are appropriate for your project - academic work requires academic reference material, for instance.