Citing Document Sources-Part 1: In-Text Citations (Continued)

A student writing. When using someone else's work, a citation must be given to indicate the source(s) used.
A citation is a note, found either in the body of the text, in a footnote at the bottom of a page, or in an endnote located at the end of the document section, or chapter that provides any or all of the following information:
  • who you quoted or who created the ideas that you are paraphrasing
  • the title of the book, article, or other source material
  • where the material may be found within that source (a page number, for example)
  • when the original source material was published

There are many formats used to document/cite sources. In all of them, the basic purpose is to provide enough information to readers to enable them to locate the source used and the material that you incorporated into your work. The reader can refer to the references (also called a bibliography, depending on the format style you are using)

Your instructor will tell you which style format to use in your assignments. The ISU Library has copies of all the common style guides

in-text citations should include:

  • author's last name
  • year of publication
  • page number

Citing web pages

Although there are variations in how web pages are cited depending on the reference format used, one should record the following:

  • web page title
  • author of web page (if available) or organization publishing the web page
  • web page URL address
  • date you accessed the web page
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