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Information Literacy Tutorial: Citing

How to use Section 1

Part 1 of the tutorial consists of 3 sections (A, B & C) containing readings, videos and questions. First read through the information and watch the videos on pages 1A, 1B, and 1C. When finished take the quiz at the end of section C. The content in these sections is best followed from top-to-bottom beginning with the left column.

1A: Information & Scholarship
1B: Citing
1C: Plagiarism

After completing this part of the tutorial students will be able to:

  • Demonstrate an understanding of plagiarism by appropriately and accurately acknowledging the use of information sources.
  • Participate in a scholarly conversation by integrating appropriate sources respectfully into a research assignment.

1B: Why & When to Cite

1B: What is a Citation?

What do you need to include in a bibliographic citation? You need to include enough information about your source so that your readers can find that source on their own. Basically, you need to include:

Who? Who wrote or created it?

What? What is it called?

Where? Where was it published?

When? When was it published?

How? How did you access it?

Let's look at an example:

Konstan, David, and Kurt A. Raaflaub. Epic and History. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. Ebrary. Web. 24 Feb. 2014.

Who = Konstan, David, and Kurt A. Raaflaub

What = Epic and History

Where = West Sussex, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell

When = 2010

How = Ebrary. Web. 24 Feb. 2014

A parenthetical, or in-text citation for a quote on page 15 of this book would appear as:
(Konstan and Raaflaub 15)

Now you try, use Marquette's Citation tools (MLA or APA)  to help you understand how to find this information.

1B: How to Cite

Citations follow certain rules for listing their specific parts; these rules vary according to the style manual that you use.

The style manual you will most often use in composition courses is the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. For many courses in Allied Health and some Behavioral Science courses, the required style manual will be the APA  manual. 

Citations can be located in the text of your report for exact quotations, and at the end of your work, to list all the sources used in the project. The citation that you put in the text of your paper is called a parenthetical, or in-text citation. This is a brief reference that directs your reader to your Works Cited or Bibliography page at the end of your paper. The Works Cited or Bibliography page contains the complete bibliographic citation of the sources you used.

One section of the MLA and APA handbooks illustrate how to arrange information for the bibliography at the end of your work. Another section shows you how to document quotations where you use them in your text.

The materials you use in writing your research report vary considerably, as does the way you will need to cite them. How you list a book will vary from how you list an article in a magazine. In fact, how you list a book by one author will differ from how you list a book by two or more authors.

You will need to carefully identify the type of source you have used, then find the relevant example in the MLA or APA style manual. You will need to follow the example exactly, including punctuation marks, like periods, as well as the number of spaces between the parts.

APA Style aid

MLA Style aid

1B: Creating Your Citations

When writing research papers it is important to cite all the resources you used. As you're conducting your research be sure to collect the citation information from each book, article, or Website you find. Whether you quote directly from one of these sources or put the ideas in your own words you must cite it. If you don't cite correctly you could be found guilty of plagiarism

Citations are easy to find in the Library's databases; many of which allow you to email the correctly formatted citation to yourself. Basic citation information includes the title of the work, author, publisher, date, and perhaps source. Use the citation templates to find what information you need to collect for your sources.