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Let's Talk About Research: Step 4: Writing & Citing

Citations

A citation reflects all of the information a person would need to locate a particular source. For example, basic citation information for a book consists of name(s) of author(s) or editor(s), title of book, name of publisher, place of publication, and most recent copyright date.
 
A citation style dictates the information necessary for a citation and how the information is ordered, as well as punctuation and other formatting.

A bibliography lists citations for all of the relevant resources a person consulted during his or her research.

A works cited list presents citations for those sources referenced in a particular paper, presentation, or other composition. 
 
An in-text citation consists of just enough information to correspond to a source's full citation in a Works Cited list. In-text citations often require a page number (or numbers) showing exactly where relevant information was found in the original source.

Outlining

Outlines let you organize your notes into a meaningful order. They can also help you keep track of your information.

Citations

Free Citation Generators

Note Taking

Depending upon your style, there are a variety of ways to take notes. 

  1. Highlighting text when reading
  2. Using paper or electronic ways to take notes that summarize, paraphrase, or quote the source.  Be sure to keep information on the source.  An easy way to reference the source is by the first author's last name and the page number the information came from.

Paraphrase

Restate an important idea in your own words

Quote

Take the exact words from the source and surround them with quotation marks.

 

The Quote Sandwich

@themaskedmotif The recipe for an A in English this upcoming school year! 📝#education #writing #k12 ♬ original sound - themaskedmotif

Remember:

  • Keep your quotes short, break up large quotes, or paraphrase information to avoid using too many block quotes in your paper.
  • A good general guideline is that 2/3 of the paper is your ideas and 1/3 of the paper is outside sources. Talk to your teacher if you feel the assignment requires more or less information from sources.
  • Separate multiple quotations with discussion sentences. This helps improve the flow of your ideas throughout the paper.