Citing Your Sources
- When you use other writers’ words and ideas in your work, it is critical that you cite this information. This gives credit to the original source of the words or ideas and helps you avoid academic dishonesty and plagiarism.
- Citing is a way for you to participate in the scholarly conversation about a topic and add credibility to your own writing. Citing enables you to show that you have learned what experts have to say on your topic and that you are able to support your own ideas by using the research of experts.
Citation Basics
- Every citation will consist of two parts: 1) an "in-text citation" after the sentence that uses that source, and 2) the corresponding source entry in the Works Cited, References, or Bibliography list at the end of your paper.
- The citation in the list of works cited provides enough information about the source that your readers can track down the source themselves.
- FSCJ classes usually use one of two citation styles:
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APA (Most science, social-science, business, and technical courses)
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MLA (Humanities and Communication courses)
For more information on citing, see this FSCJ Library video:
