Citation Styles
Write and Cite: Your academic papers must use both in-text citations in your essay paragraphs and full citations at the end. Plagiarism can easily happen if you focus too much on writing without citing. Don't wait until the final draft to add citations. A good habit is to put citations in your rough outline!
In-text Citation vs. Full Citations: Mentioning the source of information within a paragraph is known as an in-text citation. Any sentence that quotes, summarizes, or paraphrases information from a source must have an in-text citation. Skipping in-text citation is a frequent problem for less-experienced writers, so make sure you understand this concept. An in-text citation can be written as part of the flow of the sentence or in parentheses.
Sample in-text citations in MLA style: In these examples, Cooke (find the book here) is the author and the paraphrased information comes from page 7. (MLA always requires page numbers in the in-text citations for books and periodicals).
According to Cooke, disinformation is defined as factually wrong information deliberately spread for a purpose (7).
Cooke defines disinformation as factually wrong information deliberately spread for a purpose (7).
Disinformation is defined as factually wrong information deliberately spread for a purpose (Cooke 7).
Sample in-text citations in APA style: The follow examples cite the same information in the examples above, but in APA format, which requires the year of publication. Including the page number here makes it easier for readers to confirm the information in Cooke's book.
According to Cooke (2018), disinformation is defined as factually wrong information deliberately spread for a purpose (p. 7).
Cooke (2018) defines disinformation as factually wrong information deliberately spread for a purpose (p. 7).
Disinformation is defined as factually wrong information deliberately spread for a purpose (Cooke, 2018, p. 7).
MLA, APA, and other citation styles have different formats to use, and the format is different if the author is a person or a general organization with no person's name listed. The resources linked below explain what to do.
Know Your Assignment! Your instructor decides which citation style you will use for your research paper. Check all computer-generated citations for accuracy with the appropriate style guide. Click here for a video clip on how to generate automatic citations in CU Search.
Use the links below for more information to help you create and edit your citations:
Citation Formatting Software