Why Use Citations?
Citations are an important part of the research process and creating proper citations is a skill that should be learned early on in your academic career. There are several different styles of citations. Citations themselves are extremely important and serve several different purposes.
- They give credit to the creators of the works you are using.
- Citations help you to avoid plagiarism by showing evidence that YOU did your research.
- They also show your research trail and can be used by your audience or readers to learn more about specific subjects.
- Citations can also help tell your readers more about what your paper, presentation, etc. is about!
- Using Citation Management SoftwareCitation management software collects citations from various sources, organizes them, and compiles them into a bibliography or list of works cited. The software helps the user create citations in numerous different styles such as APA, MLA, Turabian, and Chicago. Includes instructions for using EndNote, Zotero, and Mendeley.
Understanding Citations
Use this to identify the key elements found in different citation examples.
Image from pp. 171-172 of the Asking Questions in Biology textbook.