This is the fifth of seven video modules in Langara Library's Avoiding Plagiarism Tutorial. It introduces the basic mechanics of citing in the three main citation styles used at Langara - APA, MLA, and Chicago styles.
Video Transcript:
Narrator: Now you've learned about why we cite. Next, we'll focus on how to correctly cite your sources. Broadly speaking, there are two parts to a citation. The first part is the in-text citation. This appears in the body of your paper. It gives readers an easy to follow key to the original source and begins with the same publication detail as the full reference at the end of your paper. For example, the author's last name. Because the in-text citation and full reference begin with the same publication detail, often the author's last name, it's easy to move from the in-text citation to the full reference at the end of your paper. We'll look at an example of an in-text citation in just a moment.
The second part of a citation is the references, work cited, or bibliography. The name varies depending on the citation style you're using. This appears at the and of your paper. It's arranged alphabetically, and includes full publication details so readers can find the original source.
So, in terms of types of information, what do you need to cite? Words or ideas presented in print, online, or on-screen, information you gather through an interview or conversation with another person, diagrams, illustrations, charts, pictures, or other visual materials you re-print, electronically available media you reuse or re-post including images, audio, and video, and course material, including information covered by your instructors in lectures. However, you don't cite everything. You don't need to cite your own lived experiences, observations, insights, thoughts, and conclusions about a subject, your own results from lab or field experiments, your own artwork, digital photographs, video, audio, et cetera, generally accepted facts, including facts that are accepted within a particular academic field, and things that are common knowledge.
The next few slides provide examples of in-text citations and references for this 2002 article from the Journal of Canadian Studies in APA, MLA, and Chicago style. Don't worry - you don't have to memorize the ins and outs of each citation style here. These examples are simply intended to demonstrate how your citations will appear within your paper and at the end of your paper. Feel free to pause the video at any time to take a closer look at the examples in this section. See if you can spot some of the major differences between the citation styles.
This is an example of citing in APA style. There's an in-text citation at the end of a quoted passage and a corresponding complete citation in the references list. Here's the same passage cited in MLA style. You can see again that the quoted passage is followed by an in-text citation and corresponds to complete citation in the works cited list. Finally, in Chicago style, there's again an in-text citation, though it takes the form of a footnote, and a corresponding complete citation in the bibliography.
You'll notice that no matter what your citation style, the presence of an in-text citation and its corresponding complete citation is essential. Again, you don't have to memorize the details of each and every citation style. You just need to know where to find answers when you need them. Luckily, the library has quick guides to the major citation styles.
You can also find copies of the full APA, MLA, and Chicago style guides in the Writing Center, at the reference desk, and in the library's collection. There are also a number of websites that provide guides to the major citation styles, including the Purdue Online Writing lab, or OWL. You'll find links to these resources within this section. Now that you know how to correctly cite your sources, we'll look at how to incorporate work by others into your own assignments.