Citing sources

What:

1. Statistics, facts, figures, ideas, and information that is not characterized as common knowledge should be cited.
2. Any exact language needs to be in quotations and cited, and ideas and/or theories that are not your own also need to be cited.
3. If you are unsure, play it safe and cite it.  Understand when to use quotes and how to paraphrase.

Why:

1. It gives credit to the person who created the idea.  Failure to properly cite your source could be construed as plagiarism, and you could get yourself in a lot of trouble.
2. It provides your readers with the information they need to locate and evaluate the sources you used for themselves.  

How:

1. There are several different citation styles. Always check with your professor to be sure you're using the correct one.
2. A bibliography, works cited, or reference page is a compilation of all the sources (articles, books, reports, websites, etc.) that you used to help inform your writing. This is separate and in addition to in-text citations.
3. In-text citations help signal to the reader exact spots in your writing where you used someone else's idea(s) or information. Some styles use superscript numbers with corresponding footnotes or endnotes, while other styles use parentheses with an author's last name and date of publication, etc.