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Citing Sources

  • Why Cite Your Sources?
  • APA Style
  • ASA Style
  • MLA Style
  • Annotated Bibs
  • Citation Generators

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Why cite your sources?

When you conduct research for your papers and other projects, you must cite your sources.

Citing your sources:

  • Gives credit to the original sources you got your information from.
  • Adds strength and authority to your work by showing you can back up what you’re saying.
  • Leaves a trail for readers who want to read your sources for themselves.

VIDEO: Citation: A (Very) Brief Introduction (University Libraries, NC State University)

The following resources will help you with your American Psychological Association (APA) citations. You may also contact Library staff and Writing Center staff for assistance. Copies of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th edition) are available in the campus libraries.

Sample APA papers: An example from the APA website and another from the Purdue OWL.

The following resources will help you with your American Sociological Association (ASA) citations. You may also contact Library staff and Writing Center staff for assistance.

The following resources will help you with your Modern Language Association (MLA)citations. You may also contact Library staff and Writing Center staff for assistance. A digital version of the MLA Handbook (9th edition) is available and you may also borrow print copies from a campus library.

Sample MLA papers: The Purdue OWL's works cited page and sample paper.

See the websites below for instructions on how to write an annotated bibliography.

Citation generators allow you to enter a source's bibliographic information in order to automatically produce a citation that you can copy and paste into your paper. Because they are machine generated, the citations are not always 100% accurate. Be sure to double-check that your generated citations are correct with a style guide or other authoritative source. This also holds true for citations you find in a library database. See the Purdue OWL's Using Citation Generators Responsibly for more information.

Library staff and Writing Center staff are also available to assist you with your citations.