Think back to the good old days when your teacher would give you an assignment and then say those dreaded words:
“You’ll need to cite three sources in your paper.”
Most students, and even adults, would probably groan. But is citing your sources just another way for your English teacher to torture you?
Of course not!
Why is Citing Important?
Citing your source is extremely important for anything you do. Think about it! If you’re watching the news or flipping through a magazine and see something that sounds too good to be true, don’t you want to know where the author got that information?
Citing your sources for an essay or assignment is just as important. Here are three major reasons why it is important to cite your sources:
#1 Citing your sources helps to prevent you from plagiarizing
Sure, you could still plagiarize something by not including quotation marks, but it is a lot easier to remember those little details when you are making sure that your source is there. Plagiarism can seriously break you, your grade, and your credibility, so citing your sources when you paraphrase or quote someone is definitely important!
#2 You become more credible when you use citations
Citing your sources shows that you know how to research. In order to cite information, you would have had to read through an article and understood their point. You also should have done background research on the writer and references of whatever you read. With all of these facts to back you up, you are able to show your audience that you can be trusted.
#3 Citing gives credit where credit is due
The biggest reason to use citations is because it gives the credit for the idea back to the one who came up with it. It’s similar to why we have patents for products; the person who came up with something deserves the respect associated with creating it! If your own words were used without your consent or acknowledgement, wouldn’t it bother you?
Okay, that’s great, but HOW do I cite?
Don’t worry, there are so many awesome resources out there to teach you how to cite.
You can definitely look up a citation generator and simply input the information you have or the website. A citation generator will take this information and pull everything you need to create your citation. The only problem with using a citation generator is sometimes the information isn’t totally correct or it is missing the really important stuff!
If you really want to make sure you’re citing your sources correctly, I would suggest learning the formula for citations. For basically any citation, you’ll need to know these things:
- Author
- Title
- Container
- Other Contributers (like an editor, if it’s mentioned)
- Version
- Number
- Publisher
- Date of Publication
- Location
While this is helpful, there are some instances when you will need more information and when you’ll need to know the specific order it goes in.
Luckily, you don’t have to remember every single formula! One of the greatest resources when it comes to citations is called Purdue OWL (which stands for Online Writing Lab). This awesome website answers any citation question you have, whether it is how to cite a website, book, movie, podcast, or even a YouTube video!
What makes this website even more valuable is that it has a variety of styles and how they each format their citations. MLA, APA, and Chicago all have slight variations to their citation format, so this really comes in handy when you aren’t sure.
Conclusion
Citing your sources, whether it is for a project at school or a conversation with a friend, is extremely important. It makes all the difference in whether someone believes your story or not. And luckily, there are so many great resources to make sure you have all the information you need to cite something properly. So the next time someone asks you where you got your information from, you can show them with confidence just how well you know how to research!
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