What is a citation and why is it used?
Answer
A citation is a reference to a source that was utilized in a research paper. The reference is usually to a book or an article.
APA in-text citation style uses the author's last name and the year of publication, for example: (Field, 2005). For direct quotations, include the page number as well, for example: (Field, 2005, p. 14)
Why do you need to cite (give credit to) sources that you've used to write your paper?
1. It avoids plagiarism (taking someone else's ideas and passing them off as your own).
2. It can show that you've read and synthesized the material.
3. It gives proper recognition to the author(s) of the source.
To make citing a little easier, here are some online citation tools.