Find more information about citation through the NSCC Library Cite Research page.
We can integrate these ideas, perspectives or findings into our scholarly conversations by:
directly quoting the contributor (including statistics and data)
paraphrasing - using the original thoughts of a contributor, but rephrasing them in your own words with often a similar structure and length
summarizing - taking major talking points from the contributor, reducing the size of the content shared (think about creating presentations)
The contribution of visual research to the conversation (other than our own) like the use of a table, graph, figure or image must also be acknowledged through citation.
We cite, or refer to, our sources in research assignments for (basically) 4 reasons:
1) To give credit to (or not take the blame for!) the "author" of the idea or quote
2) To support and highlight our own work/ideas
3) To show the research we have done
4) To become part of the academic or scholarly "conversation" about our topic
When working on academic research projects and contributing to conversations through online forums, papers, or presentations; convention also dictates the use of citation through a two part process:
Acknowledgment of the source with a brief notation after you use it in the body of your work (a.k.a. parenthetical or in-text citation). This brief notation links your audience to the second part of your citation.
A more detailed description of the source that is located in the References page at the end of your work. This detailed citation allows your audience to find the creator and source and reuse the information themselves.
Common elements of a detailed citation are Author, Date of Publication, Title of Work and Source Data (i.e. information on how to retrieve the source).
Note: The first word(s) in your brief citation should match exactly the first word in your detailed citation.
The Library subscribes to RefWorks. RefWorks is a management tool to help you import, organize, create bibliographies and export references (or citations). To learn how to create an account and use Refworks to help with citations visit our Cite Research page.
When using RefWorks make sure you select APA 6th edition. You may have to type it in the "Search for styles..." box.
