Employing correct citations is agreeable with any scholarly piece of writing. In order to get at least some academic help, they can resort to the purchase of college paper with hope that every bit of work will be done in compliance with all possible standards and within the due time. In any way that you add research in the book, an article, a web site or any other source then there is a need to cite. The use of citations can be of several purposes:
- They give credit to the writer and they do not go into the plagiarisms.
- They enable readers to trace the original source when the readers seek more details on the subject matter.
- They give substance to the points you are making since they present other sources to support your points.
However, referencing may be very confusing since there exist diverse reference types and there are numerous rules to follow. The subsequent pages of this guide, a general description of referencing in the college paper will be presented with regard to making references and in-text citations. Check out the below tips on how to cite and avoid falling into the plagiarism trap in your next scholarly writing.
Select a Citing Style
The first one is the definition of what citation style is to be employed. In academic writings, some commonly adopted citation styles are:
MLA Style
Shadow-loving, MLA Style suits such areas of humanities as English literature, foreign languages, Arts and Cultural studies. It contributes to the paper format and reference usage in the paper.
APA Style
These fields are psychological, education, business and nursing where apa is common in this particular field. Just like MLA which needs particular shapes of texts and the manner of in-textual cites.
Chicago/Turabian Style
These styles of University of Chicago are commonly used by historic writers, anthropological and economical writers. Hurry Notes or hurry Author-Date is one of the two systems.
Other Styles
Most of the discipline specific style includes IEEE (engineering), AMA (medical ), CSE ( natural science). To ensure that you will adhere to all the essential requirements offered by your teacher, you may consider the desire to see whether he or she has allocated any preference to the specific style.
Collecting Source Information
When the students decide to receive academic writing assistance, they can turn to an Academized.com review to analyze the reputation of services, the quality and reliability of them and make their choice in favor of the related services. When doing your research and reading research materials, write down relevant information so that you will have it to cite it later. With any source specify the name of the author/authors, book title, date of publication and publisher. Add journals/book/chapter title and page range to articles and chapters. With websites, name the URL and the date of access.
Have this information arranged somewhere in your notes and reference list. Keeping it will ease citing a lot during writing.
References in the Text
An in-text citation makes connections between the particular passages or thoughts in your paper with their corresponding references in either the works cited or bibliography. It indicates to the reader the source of materials used in this work and also credits the original authors proficiently.
Citing in-text can be done in two way:
Parenthetical Citations
These sources are written inside the parentheses and placed after they have been written about. They contain the last name of the author and the page number as one can find. For example:
(Smith 123).
Footnotes/Endnotes
The sources are also credited by mentioning footnotes (at the bottom of the page) and endnotes (at the end of the paper). They give the complete citation data in a note, which is referenced by a superscript number in the text. For example:
Text.^1 ^1 John Smith, Title of Book (City: Publisher, Year), 123.
Refer to your style guide to learn what way of in-text citing and formats you should take. Write according to the guide all through the paper.
Make a Bibliography/Works Cited
Introductions in your text should be completed with full publication information at the end of your paper in the list of references. The title may vary according to the kind of writing style applied as it could be either a works cited in MLA or in APA reference list. Typically, some of the sources vary in terms of format depending on the nature of sources and with an author, title, publisher and date of publication.
Put the sources sequentially in order of the last name of the author and then alphabetically as per the number. Put a list in number and also, on the second line of all items, add hanging indent. Then be sure that the references are made appropriately following the punctuations and use of italics and capitals.
Using websites as sources? Indicate URL and date it was viewed. The source is to be the database name in the case of articles. One should also make sure that one cites in the body content as the ones on the reference list. Checkout with the notes so that you have dumped all the information or any error committed.
Citation Management Tools
Getting tired of citing manually? Try software such as Zotero, EndNote or Mendeley. Such programs sort, save and export citations to incorporate them into your paper.
To use:
- The software is available online so you can download and install it. There are a lot of free versions available.
- As you progress with research, add source data on your digital library.
- Enter the in-text citations when reformulating on an ongoing stored reference.
- Export citation (bibliography/works cited list).
This simplifies citation of references and time wastage in formatting. The tracks also assist in gathering the publication details comprising of book and article details. Make referencing Easier with helpful tools.
Use General Citation Tips
Some major guidelines on citations to remember would be:
- Where you cut and paste, paraphrase or summarize any work of any other researcher, then you should refer back to it. This is in terms of direct quotes, statistics, images, and ideas among others.
- Make in-text citations close to what you are referencing. Do not reserve it to last paragraphs.
- Ensure that the in text citation correlates to the source used in bibliography or works cited.
- Do not over quoted. As far as possible, use your own words in paraphrasing the sources.
- Whenever using sources, use scholarly journals, books and institutional websites as they are reliable and credible.
- Note that the citations are inclusive and in the correct format as stipulated in your style book.
Citing may seem monotonous initially, however, when one pays attention to citing the sources, he/she prevents plagiarism. You will get used to the styles of various citations and referencing, with practice, when you start writing. The most important thing in both academic and professional writing is to master the art of citations.
Conclusion
By referencing you will be able to add meritorious information in papers and also show appreciation to original research. Apply the following in order to cite appropriately in essays:
- Choose a style of citation such as MLA, APA or Chicago.
- Write down the source of records as you research on to make it easier when citing.
- Put in-text citations that correspond to the sources used.
- Provide a bibliography/works cited of detailed references.
- Explore the sources of citation management to arrange sources and generate citations.
- Adhere to style formats and scan citations.
Write well by referencing reliable sources properly. Good citation habit would make you reliable as a researcher and prevent plagiarism charges in papers. seek further information from the university writing center to know more ways of citing sources properly in papers.