Giving Credit where Credit is Due

Using outside sources is not only a great way to make your writing more compelling, it is also often a requirement of many course assignments to lend support and validity to your ideas. When using outside sources, whether it be a book, video, article, webpage, etc., it is always important to cite the source. Citing is a way to give credit to someone for his/her words, ideas, artwork, or other original creation.

Correct citations help the reader to find the origin of the sources that you use in your essay/paper. This can be to check currency of the source, to find further related reading, or get a more in-depth understanding of the evidence that you're using. Citations are often both in the text itself and at the end of the essay/paper. Take a look at the examples below.

Examples

In-Text Citation/Documentation

It is now believed that “...the lowest caste performed the unwitting role of diverting society’s attention from its structural ills and taking the blame for collective misfortune” (Wilkerson 191).

Here we can see the author's last name, so we can find the full citation later in the works cited/references. The page number is also listed, so that when we find the original source, we can locate the exact page and find the direct quote.

Full Citation

Wilkerson, Isabel. Caste; The Origins of Our Discontents. Random House, 2020.

The full citation helps the reader to find the exact source by listing all relevant information needed; in this case the author's full name, the title of the work, the publisher, and the date.

Now that we've discovered why we cite, let's take a look at what happens if we choose not to cite.

Click Next or the arrow at the bottom right of each page to move through the Modules.