Citing Sources

• It affects your grade!
• Give credit to the people whose ideas you used.
• Anyone reading your paper will have accurate references for future study.
• Citing sources is essential to avoiding plagiarism in your writing.

Different disciplines use different citation methods. Ask your instructors which style they prefer. If they have no preference, follow these guidelines:

APA Style: psychology, education, nursing, social sciences

MLA Style: literature, arts, humanities

Turabian Style: history; can be used with all subjects

ACM Style: computer science

Other Styles: CBU's Writing & Communications Corner has information on additional citation styles.

There are two main steps to creating a citation:

1. Cite within the text of your paper with parenthetical references or footnotes. Provide the exact page number of the passage you're citing.
    
2. Make a list of all the works you cited. This page is called Works Cited, References, or Bibliography, depending on which citation style you use. Order items alphabetically by author's last name.

Citation Creation: How-to Video from Plough Library