Citation Styles
Write and Cite: To be an ethical academic writer, it is necessary both to use in-text citations in your essay paragraphs and to collect a list of full citations during all stages of the writing process: outlining, writing, and revising. Plagiarism can easily happen if you focus too much on writing without keeping track of where the information came from. 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: Every academic paper must directly mention all sources used within the paragraphs of the essay. Mentioning the source of information in the paragraph is known as an in-text citation. Within a paragraph that uses information from a source, an in-text citation can be written as part of the sentence or in parentheses at the end of the sentence. Here are some examples of in-text citations in MLA style where Cooke is the author and the information comes from pages 6 through 8:
According to Cooke, misinformation and disinformation are spreading rapidly online (6-8).
Cooke explains the process of how misinformation and disinformation spread rapidly online (6-8).
Misinformation and disinformation spread rapidly online (Cooke 6-8).
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 these links for more information to help you create and edit your citations.
Citation Formatting Software