Keeping track of whether you plan to quote, paraphrase or summarize a source while you are taking notes is a good method for making sure you use your source in the best possible way.

There are several basic citation styles you will encounter in college, depending on your major.  The citation style often used in writing classes is MLA.  Some other common styles are APA, Chicago, and CSE.

When you do your research, you will need to cite your sources according to the style that your professor recommends or requires. There are a number of different styles and you may already be familiar with some of them. The most common ones are:

• APA
• MLA
• Turabian

It's important that you follow these styles closely. When you are doing your research, you will need to write down all of  the information about the book or article you are citing so you have all of that information when you put together your bibliography or works cited page.

[3:00 min.]

This tutorial explains the reasons why you need to acknowledge the work of others in your writing.

[Tutorial created by the Cooperative Library Instruction Project]