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.
The purpose of each citation is to indicate where the information came from, and to provide the reader with enough information to access the original source. The type of source can effect the citation, but typically every citation requires the following information:
In online databases, the article's record (what you see when you first discover the article) should contain all the necessary information:
In a print book or journal, most of this can be found at the beginning of the source:
Once you have the above information collected, you'll want to construct the citation. For the general format of APA and MLA citations for the more commonly cited materials, please see below:
Author, First. "Title of Article." Title of Periodical, vol., no., Year, pages. DOI or URL
Example:
Traditional Print books:
Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. City of Publication, Publisher, Publication Date.
Examples:
Electronic books:
Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of book [eBook edition]. Publisher. URL
*It is only necessary to denote format when the electronic version differs from the traditional print version.*
Audiobooks:
Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of book (N. Narrator, Narr.) [Audiobook]. Publisher.
*It is only necessary to denote format when the audiobook version differs from the traditional print version in some way (is abridged or has additional content).*
Traditional print news article:
Author, First. "Title of Article." Title of Newspaper, Day Month Year, pages.
Online news article (from a publisher with a physical newspaper):
Lastname, First. "Title of Article." Title of Newspaper, Day Month Year, URL
Online news article (from a publisher without a physical newspaper):
Lastname, First. "Title of Article." Name of publishing website, Month Day Year, URL
Lastname, First. "Title of Page." Site Name, URL. Accessed Day Month Year.
Group name. "Title of page." Site name, URL. Accessed Day Month Year.
"Title of page." Site name, URL. Accessed Day Month Year.
Blogpost:
Lastname, First. "Title of Blogpost." Name of Blog, Day Month Year of blogpost, URL of blogpost. Accessed Day Month Year.
Facebook:
Lastname, First or Name of Group. "Description of Post." Facebook, Day Month Year of Post, URL. Accessed Day Month Year.
Instagram:
Lastname, First or Name of Group [@username]. "Content of the post up to the first 20 words" [Instagram Post], Instagram, URL. Accessed Day Month Year.
Twitter:
Lastname, First or Name of Group [@username]. "Content of the post up to the first 20 words" [Tweet], Twitter, URL. Accessed Day Month Year.
YouTube (or other streaming video):
Last name, First name of the creator. “Title of the video or audio.” Youtube, role of contributors and their First name Last name, URL. Accessed Day Month Year.
To transform the above information into a proper citation, 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 below. 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.
Many library databases also include an automatic citation option. This is normally indicated by a quotation mark symbol. If you're using the library's Discovery system to find articles, you are able to use the citation function directly through there. This is a great resource, but remember to proofread the citation. Notice here how the citation created reads "INSERT-MISSING-URL".
