Citations

[Based on Faith Academy]

Can you help show my son how to put citations in his report? His college teacher wants him to write a report based upon something he has read out of a book. He needs to include citations. How does he go about doing it? He said the whole class had a hard time understanding.

TIA

[maize]

Did the teacher tell the class which citation format she wants? If not he should ask.

[maize]

Here's a brief introduction to citations with a link to a tutorial:

https://www.lib.utexas.edu/citations/understand/briefintroduction.html

[Lori D.]

OWL at Purdue is also helpful for showing how to use citations, but you do need to know which format style you are required to use -- examples: MLA, APA, or Chicago.

 

Here's a very abbreviated version of how I teach citations in the Composition portion of my homeschool middle school and high school co-op classes:

 

 

The purpose of citations in your paper is to give credit to every source of information for every fact or piece of info that is not common knowledge, or knowledge from out of your own head. And citations show up in 2 places in your paper:

 

1. You put a citation right next to each fact/information in your paper in the form of an "in-text citation" -- because it's right there in the text, next to the piece of information. Sometimes the in-text citation is called a "parenthetical citation" (because you cite the source of the piece of information in parentheses right after the piece of information).

 

2. AND you create a full citation for each source on the "Works Cited" page at the end of your paper.

 

So, the facts and information for your paper will come from a variety of sources: book, magazine, online article, interview, documentary, etc. Citations give quick credit to each and every source of information in the paper as you "cite" (refer to / use) that source, AND citations appear at the end of the paper as a big list.  So citations are to help your reader -- to see which source you got that particular fact or piece of information within the paper, AND in case the readers of your paper would want to go find that source and read that information for themselves you provide all the info about the source at the end of the paper to help the reader find that source easily.

 

Citations are written in a specific format (MLA, APA, Chicago), which is just a specific set of "rules" or "order" for how to write out the details of the citation to make it easy for readers to understand how to find that original source of information.

 

1. In Text Citations

Every time you directly quote (use the words of another person), you need to cite (give credit) to the source of the quotation. BUT, you ALSO must cite the source of information for every factual piece of information or evidence you include in your report, even when you have re-written that information/fact in your own words and are NOT quoting.

 

For both quotations AND information written in your own words, you use an in-text citation right next to the quotation or the piece of information. This in-text citation is short and in parentheses (  ), which is why it is sometimes called a "parenthetical citation". Think of this type of citation as a short aside in the midst of the paper. You don't want to interrupt the reader with a big long amount of technical information about the source of information; you just want to say quickly "and that came from ___(author's last name)___ on ___(page #)__" -- and then get right back into the paper. Example:

 

       The sky is blue (Smith 23).

 

"The sky is blue" is the piece of information you are using from a source by an author whose last name is "Smith" and the page # that this particular piece of information came from is page 23. That is what it would look like for MLA format -- author's last name -- NO comma -- just the # of the page where that fact came from.

 

The APA format is just a little different: author's last name -- comma -- year book was published -- comma -- p. (for "page") and the # of the page. So APA would look like:

 

       The sky is blue (Smith, 2012, p. 23).

 

 

2. Full Citations on the "Works Cited" page

Because you only do "quick aside" credits in the midst of the paper, you need to include "complete credits" (lol) or full citations at the end of the paper on the separate "Works Cited" page. 

 

The point of the full citation is to provide as much about each source of information as possible, to make it as easy as possible for your readers to find those same sources if they would like to read those sources for themselves. That information includes things like: author's name; title of the book, or title of the article title and title of the journal the article appeared in; the publisher of the book or journal; the year and city of the book's publishing, or the volume and issue # of the journal; the type of source -- i.e., was it a printed book or magazine (print), or was it an online website or electronic journal (web), etc.

 

This is where you need to know which format (MLA, APA, Chicago) is required, as each has a slightly different order for how to list all the pieces of information. Think of all those bits of information about the source as a train of linked train cars, with each bit of information being a different train car. Each of the formats (MLA, APA, Chicago) is a different train company that puts their train cars in slightly different orders.

 

You try and include as many of those bits of information about the source as possible -- each bit of information "fills" one train car of your citation. But if you absolutely can't find a bit of information about the source -- for example the author of an online internet article -- then picture the train of cars: you drop out that particular train car that is "empty", and go ahead and fill the next train car, and it rolls forward on your citation track, taking the place of the "empty" car that you drop out of your train. So you keep the order that your format requires of you, but just drop out any of the bits that you sometimes can't find.

 

Example of a full citation for the Works Cited page in MLA format:

       Smith, John. The Sky Above Us. New York: Book Press, 2012. Print.

 

Example of a full citation for the Works Cited page in APA format:

       Smith, John (2012).  The Sky Above Us. New York, NY: Book Press.

 

So from these full citations, the reader learns:

- author's name = John Smith

- book title = The Sky Above Us

- place of publishing = New York

- publishing company = Book Press

- year of publishing = 2012

- type of source = print (actually printed -- not an electronic or digital book)

 

If I were reading the paper that had my above examples of citations, as I read, I could see the quick aside about where that info of "the sky is blue", and I can either keep reading without being distracted, OR, I can go find out more about this particular source by flipping to the end of the paper to the Works Cited page and look for that author's last name in the list of sources used to write this paper, find that specific full citation by author last name (which is what the in-text citation also used) and I can see that it's a printed book that I could look for in a library or order from a book seller, as I now have all the information I need for finding that exact same book from the full citation.

 

To sum it up:

- in-text citations give credit to the source of each quotation and piece of information used in your paper right next to that piece of information

- full citations go on the Works Cited page at the end of the paper, and give your reader all the information they need to find those sources you used in your research

 

BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

 

Edited September 25, 2016 by Lori D.

[MomatHWTK]

They may not be perfect, but after he writes his citations you can check them against and online citation builder. Here's one, but there are others:

http://www.citationmachine.net/

 

You enter your information and style and the app puts it into correct form. Viewing published research articles online is also a good way to 'learn by example.' You just have to choose one with the correct format.

 

I work with an editor who reviews my citations for me when I need to use them in an article. She's very good at telling my what I did wrong so I can learn. 

Edited September 25, 2016 by MomatHWTK

[Based on Faith Academy]

Did the teacher tell the class which citation format she wants? If not he should ask.

He said the teacher didn't. He has emailed her but as of yet she has not responded.

[maize]

What kind of class is it? This page gives information for citation standards in various disciplines:

 

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/585/02/

[Lori D.]

He said the teacher didn't. He has emailed her but as of yet she has not responded.

 

And honestly, I wouldn't let not knowing the format stop him -- I'd get the rough draft of the paper written now, and when doing the revision, insert the in-text citations.

 

It's pretty easy to go back at the final proof-editing stage and fix the formatting of the in-text citations and to create the Works Cited page AFTER the hard/time-consuming work of writing and revising the paper is done. :)

[Based on Faith Academy]

Lori,

 

I wish I could like your post again and again. Great explanation!!

 

Thank you!

 

Thank you all for your help. Now we just need to wait for a response from his teacher.

[hollyhock]

Love that explanation, Lori!

 

Follow-up question:

 

Why in-text citations instead of footnotes or endnotes? Is there a reason or doesn't it matter or am I missing something?

[Lori D.]

Follow-up question:

 

Why in-text citations instead of footnotes or endnotes? Is there a reason or doesn't it matter or am I missing something?

 

For MLA and APA formats:

 

In-text citations are for specific citing (giving credit) to the source of the fact, information, or quotation that just was directly referenced in the paper -- giving credit "in the moment".

 

I'm very visual, so I find it helpful to visualize in-text citations as the point in the paper in which the author (picture a lecturer at a podium) has been laying out their argument and using information from their research, and then right after the specific example or fact, the  author takes 2 seconds to lean to the side, put a hand to the mouth and say in a low voice: "by the way, that fact was from Jane Smith's research", or, "that information was from Bob Jones' article" -- and then the author straightens up and immediately continues in normal voice with the flow of the argument. 

 

Endnotes and footnotes are for things that are "extra" or "to the side" of the paper's topic and would be distracting to the flow of the paper if included in the body of the text. (Bunny trails. :) ) So instead, these "extras" are placed at the foot of the page, or at the end of the paper (or book chapter), so the reader can decide whether or not to interrupt the flow of the paper to read the "side" material.

 

Visually, this would be more like the author as a lecturer at the podium saying -- "see me after the lecture if you wanted more information on the history and some of the key people of that process I just mentioned -- now, to continue with the main point..."

 

Things that would be included in an endnote or footnote, instead of in parentheses in the middle of the paper:

- supplementary explanation (explanation of a process or other details that "tangent" to the main topic)

- digressions (arguments, discussions, information, etc. that is a "tangent" to the topic of the paper) 

- bibliographic notes (mention of additional/supplemental works the author thinks the reader might like to consult)

 

Again, as a visual person, I see endnotes and footnotes acting much as "clickable links" within the body of the main text (the main "web page" of the paper), and the reader can choose to go to "click" (visually, drop down to the bottom of the page or flip to the end of the paper) and interrupt the main "viewing" experience to go see the linked extras -- OR, ignore the "clickable links" of endnotes and footnotes and stay on the "main web page" of the paper's main topic.

 

APA style manual

APA: Endnotes and Footnotes

APA: In-Text Citations

 

MLA style manual

MLA: In-Text Citations

MLA: Endnotes and Footnotes

 

For Chicago style format:

Uses either in-text citations OR footnotes -- depends on what the instructor or publisher wants.

Chicago style endnotes, footnotes, bibliiography -- humorously written, very clear pdf with visual examples

OWL at Purdue: Chicago Manual of Style

 

And, in case you also wanted to know the difference between a bibliography, a works cited page, and a reference list page:

 

For MLA and APA formats:

Bibliography is a list of additional/supplemental works or publications that the paper's author thinks the readers might be interested in. These are NOT the works directly used in the paper by the author for research/writing the paper.

 

For the full list of all sources used in the paper, done in that "train car" order from my above post, MLA and APA have their own names for this section of the paper:

 

Works Cited page = MLA format -- OWL at Purdue, how to format MLA: Works Cited page

Reference List page = APA format -- OWL at Purdue, how to format APA: Reference List

 

For Chicago style format:

Bibliography page = the full list of all sources used in the paper, done in that "train car" order. To help with creating the bibliography page, here is the Chicago Style Manual Online and the OWL at Purdue Chicago Manual of Style.

Edited September 25, 2016 by Lori D.

[IronSpider]

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