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Citing Your Sources: Citations

Properly format references, avoid plagiarism, and improve the credibility of their research with clear guidance on APA, MLA, and other citation styles.

Why is Citation Important?

It's important to cite sources you used in your research for several reasons:

  • To show your reader you've done proper research by listing sources you used to get your information
  • To be a responsible scholar by giving credit to other researchers and acknowledging their ideas
  • To avoid plagiarism by quoting words and ideas used by other authors
  • To allow your reader to track down the sources you used by citing them accurately in your paper by way of footnotes, a bibliography or reference list

(Source: MIT Libraries)

Citation Fundamentals

Citation Styles