- #HOW TO PROPERLY CITE SOURCES WITHIN A PAPER HOW TO#
- #HOW TO PROPERLY CITE SOURCES WITHIN A PAPER FULL#
See our synthesis demonstration for help learning how to use the literature to support your thesis.Ĥ. When reading the literature, keep that argument in mind, noting ideas or research that speak to the issues in your particular draft.
Have I used the cited material to support my specific thesis? All material that you cite should contribute to your main argument (also called a thesis or purpose statement). Additionally, the reader may not understand your reasons for including that material.ģ. Without these elements of a paragraph, you leave your reader without a sense of the paragraph's main purpose. Did I begin and end my paragraphs in my own voice? The opening sentence of each paragraph should be your topic sentence, and the final sentence in the paragraph should conclude your point and lead into the next. For help with creating this commentary while also avoiding personal opinion, see our Commentary vs. Make sure your paper is more than a collection of ideas from your sources it should provide an original interpretation of that material. Did I provide adequate commentary on the cited material? Cited material should illustrate rather than substitute for your point. Here are some factors to consider when citing sources:ġ.
#HOW TO PROPERLY CITE SOURCES WITHIN A PAPER FULL#
In fact, Jones (2011) found 99 out of 100 students agreed citing work could seem like a "complex, maddening process" (p. They also indicated some students receive erroneous information about citations or some professors are too lenient with them, causing even more confusion. Here is an example of citations within a paragraph: True and Noble (2009) found many students are highly confused about citation. For examples of how often to cite a source in a paragraph, see some examples on the Citing Sources Properly page.ĪPA style citations are all in-text citations, meaning the information about the source appears in the body of the paper rather than in endnotes or footnotes. Credit a source in each sentence that references material from a source. It is not necessary to cite common knowledge (i.e., you do not need to cite that the Earth is round).
See APA 7, Section 8.13 for more information and examples.Ĭitations in your paper are necessary to provide credit to the proper sources failure to cite properly could result in plagiarism.Īlthough it is important to cite any ideas retrieved from sources, such as paraphrased explanations, quotations, statistics, or figures. The indicator can alternatively be the section of a document for which a page or paragraph number is not a suitable choice, a timestamp for videos or audiobooks, or a slide number in a PowerPoint presentation. A paragraph number is used for a source without pagination, such as a long webpage. A page number is used for a source with pages, such as a book or journal article. This element is often a page or paragraph number. In APA style, citations include at least these two elements:Ī third element is necessary when citing a specific part of a source, such as when quoting, and entails an indicator of the specific part.