A Tutorial To Citing Sources In A Research Paper

Anyone who is involved in academic writing be it a simple essay or a much more complex dissertation, will know that they will often quote the writing of other people. This is not only legal, it is to be encouraged. A student who has read widely and thoroughly will find information from a variety of sources and being able to show their extensive reading is a good thing. It can help produce a higher grade for their writing.

But there are two important things to grasp in tackling this situation. It is no good quoting for quoting's sake. You need to include references which support the argument you are trying to make in your research paper or essay. So any quotation is not acceptable. They must be relevant and add to the value of your own writing. And the second point is that you must list them, notate them or cite them in the correct manner.

Know which method you have to use

There are different ways of making a citation of a reference in an essay. You need to be sure from your teacher or tutor which particular citation format you are to use. Once you know this, learning the various steps and procedures is straightforward. Your academic institution will probably have extensive information on this specific topic. And you will find a wide variety of websites which give you all the necessary details.

The beauty of so many of the tutorials online regarding referencing citation is that they list the steps you need to take in a clear and straightforward fashion. Things like the author's last name, the year of the publication of the resource material you are quoting from and even a page number of a particular book or publication.

Sometimes the reference you are quoting comes from a resource which has been written by more than one author. There is an order in which you list all the names of the authors. Sometimes when there are multiple writers you might add the first author's name and then 'and others'.

There is even a set of rules as far as punctuation is concerned. For instance if you have a number of citations listed one after the other they should be separated by using a semicolon. Yes, the rules are many and varied and not every system is exactly the same. But it is easy to find examples using the citation format you are required to use.

If all else fails, one of the best sources of information is to read essays which have been given a very high grading and study the way the author has cited the references. You learn from the expertise of others.

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