Freshman Research Project - My Voice

What is citation?

A research project will include facts, opinions, quotations, and images taken from a variety of print, non-print, and electronic sources. Citing sources is providing select information about each source used for a project. You should cite not only what you quote, but also what you paraphrase.

Why do we cite?

• to give proper credit for words, ideas, graphics, or other information you borrow from others.
• to help readers find sources you used in case they want to read more from those pieces for themselves.
• to avoid plagiarism.

The primary rule of good citation is to provide enough information so that readers can find the source 

For each source you use, make sure to keep track of these pieces of information:

• author(s) 
• title 
• publication or publisher
• date

Different Styles:

The three most commonly used at by OPRFHS teachers are APA, MLA, and Chicago. For this project, you will use MLA.

When citing sources in MLA Style, always list these elements in the following order and style (you may not need them all):

Author. "Title of source." Title of container, Other contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location.

TEACHERS: MLA no longer requires place of publication. Punctuation between elements has been simplified to commas and periods only.