Outside sources are often a requirement for your papers and projects. The library can help you locate books, articles, and other materials to meet your needs, but that's only the first step. Once you have located them, you still have to use the sources responsibly. The main component to this is citing the sources correctly. This tutorial will help you understand the purpose of a citation and how to create one for a bibliography or work cited page.
Where to Start?
Each discipline has its own style guide, so you need to be aware of which one your professor requires. Some of the most popular are APA, MLA, and Chicago. Through they each approach citations differently, all require the same collection of information to create a successful citation.
The Basics
The purpose of each citation is to indicate to the reader where the information came from, and to provide them with enough information to access the original source. The type of source can effect the citation, but typically every citation requires the following information:
- Author
- Title (of book, article, or journal)
- Publisher
- Publication date
- Page numbers
- Volume and issue number (for journals)
- URL (if a web source)
- Database name (if from a library database)
- Access date (if its an electronic source)
You should be able to find all this information on the source itself. Print books or journals will have it located in the front of the book
In electronic databases the record for each article should contain all the necessary information:
Creating a Citation
To transform these pieces of information into a citation for a bibliography or works cited page, you'll need to consult the appropriate style guide. The library has copies of each guide available for use. You also may want to use one of the many citation management/generator tools that are available either for free or a subscription fee:
* A word of caution when using tools such as those listed above. Don't assume that the citation is correct, instead always verify the citation before turning in your paper. Glitches and uncommon formatting can cause trouble for these automatic generators.
More Help
This tutorial only covered the basics of citations. To find more information you can visit the BC Writing Center or ask a librarian. You can also check out the following sites:
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