Learn the basics

A citation is a reference to a book, journal article, webpage or any other published or unpublished sources. It provides information to identify an item uniquely.

1. Give credit to the authors behind the ideas you use.

2. Show your research by using a range of reliable sources.

3. Strengthen your arguments with clear evidence.

4. Help your readers find the exact sources you referenced.

5. Protect yourself from plagiarism issues.

1. Facts, figures, ideas, or other information that is not common knowledge

2. When you directly quote from a source (book, article, websites etc.). Direct quotes are typically used when the author's original works are so well expressed that it will lose its essence/impact if rewritten in another way. Use quotation marks for direct quotes to distinguish it from your own writing. However, do use direct quotes sparingly as a report that is full of direct quotes reflects a lack of effort in ingesting the information and presenting it in your own style/words.

3. Ideas that you have used from sources consulted, and rewriting using your own words

4. You don’t need to reference common knowledge such as folklore, well known historical events, or widely accepted facts, but if you’re unsure whether something counts, it’s safer to give credit.

1) Citing References in Text

 -Identifies the source for readers and allows them to locate the source of information in the reference list which is at the end of the article

-Every reference cited in text must have a corresponding reference in the reference list, and every reference that appears in the reference list must be cited in text.

2) Reference List (APA/Harvard)/Works Cited (MLA)

-Reference that appears in the end of the article. Typically contains information on author/editor, date of publication, title of publication/article, volume, issue, page number, doi or url where applicable. Order and way of presenting vary according to the citation style used.

-corresponds to the in-text citation