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Citations 101

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You will identify the pieces of information commonly required in academic citations. You will learn how to identfy those pieces of information in different contexts

Citation Basics

There are certain basic things you need to cite almost all sources, using just about any format:

  • The AUTHOR (or creator) of the work.  This may be one person, many people, a group or an organization.
  • The TITLE OF THE WORK itself.  The article title, the book title, the video title, etc.
  • The PUBLICATION DATE.

If your specific source was published as part of a larger work, then you also need the TITLE OF THE LARGER WORK. 

This could be a newspaper, magazine or journal (if your source is an article), a book (if your source is a chapter or image), etc.

Article Example

If you are citing an article, take note of this information.  In this example, the article appears in an article database called Academic Search Premier:

Here is the same information, as it would appear in a Works Cited list in MLA style:

Demirjian, Karoun. “What Is the Price of Plagiarism?” Christian Science Monitor, 11 May 2006, https://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0511/p14s01-lire.html

Here is how the same information would appear on an APA-style References page:

Demirjian, K. (2006, May 11). What is the price of plagiarism? Christian Science Monitor. https://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0511/p14s01-lire.html

 

Book Example

If you are citing a book, take note of this information.  In this example, the book appears in the OSU Libraries catalog.

Here is the same information, as it would appear in a Works Cited list in MLA style:

Posner, Richard A. The Little Book of Plagiarism. Pantheon Books, 2007.

Finally, here is the same information, as it would appear in a References list in APA style:

Posner, R. A. (2007). The little book of plagiarism. Pantheon Books.

Citing New Media

You'll find that citation style guides can't always keep up with new forms of communication.

Sometimes, you can find updated information on the web, but sometimes you have to just do the best you can, applying what you know about the style to the new format.

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