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ENGL 1301 SO Koch: Citing Sources

This guide provides resources for your research in Professor Koch's ENGL 1301 class.

Why Cite Your Sources?

Dr. Evil Meme - Air quotes don't count as citing your sources from meme generator dot net

Why do I need to cite my sources?

  • To allow others to find the information you used in your research paper.
  • To help establish the credibility of your research.
  • To acknowledge the work of other scholars who have made your own research possible.
  • To help you avoid plagiarizing!

Help With Citing Sources

Citation Tips

Forgetting to document a source is considered plagiarism!

Don't wait until you finish your paper to begin citing your sources. It is a better idea to cite your sources as you find them and use them.  Use these tips to help ensure that documenting your sources is quick and easy!

  1. When you decide to use a source, be sure to copy all the information required to develop a citation.
  2. When you add a quotation to your paper, document the page number (or the paragraph number if no page number is present) of where the quotation was found.
  3. Also, be careful if you cut and paste a quotation from one of our database articles to your paper. It is all too easy, while writing, to cut and paste a quotation without also jotting down the citation information.

The best way to make sure you do not forget to cite the sources you use - cite while you write!

Video Tip

What is citation? And why do we do it? This video explains! (1:54 min)
Courtesy NCSU Libraries

Online Citation Generators

These sites have [limited] free, online tools that can help you format citations for your bibliography.