Citations & Sources

Your research paper will be grounded in evidence.

You are marshalling evidence of many kinds: facts, studies, observations, theories, philosophies, history. Much more evidence than you personally can generate!

You will be gathering, interpreting, and synthesizing evidence around a topic you have chosen, with an ultimate goal of reaching some conclusions and judgements about your topic

Citations play a number of important roles in your research paper:

• Supporting the claims and assertions you make in your paper.
• Establishing the credibility of the claims and assertions you make in your paper.
• Allowing your readers to "see for themselves" what your sources said.
• Acknowledging your academic debt to other authors.
• Distinguishing between the work of others and your contributions.
• Establishing your credentials as a researcher: Showing that you have found reputable and credible sources of an acceptable quality.
• Citations are also a short and efficient way for you to refer to outside work, allowing you to spend fewer words in your paper about the sources, and more words on their context, meaning, and connection to your topic.

Style and Examples

Use a consistent style for your citations and list of works cited. MLA, APA, and Chicago are prominent. You are required to use a consistent style in your paper, but *which* style you choose is up to you!

Here are couple of examples from Diana Hacker's "Pocket Style Manual" (9th edition):

• Some of the MLA rules (with examples) for citations.  Each citation consists of a signal phrase and a parenthetical reference.  An APA citation (Purdue OWL) also uses signal phrases and parenthetical references, but the syntax is a little different.
• A short example page and list of works cited in MLA style.