Citation Guide What to cite: You need to have a cite for any of the following: a- direct quotations from another source b-paraphrased analysis or opinions from another source c- facts, that are not common knowledge, obtained from your sources Item c) is tricky; it’s a judgement call. But in general, you should assume that since you’re doing research on this topic, the information you’re finding is not common knowledge. You should err of the side of caution; that is, when in doubt, cite. It shows your reader/professor what material you used to gain what information. It is always better to cite than not to cite, and it can never hurt you. An implication of this is that there should not be many sources which appear in your bibliography that do not also appear as citations somewhere in the paper. Where to cite: For direct quotations, the cite generally goes immediately after the quote. This is also true for long, indented quotes. However, if you are only quoting a sentence or clause, and that quote appears in a paragraph or group of sentences all of which come from the same source, you can put the citation at the end of the paragraph or sentence group. For paraphrases, put the citation at the end of the group of sentences to which it applies. If a paraphrase extends over more than one paragraph, you have to cite the source in each paragraph. For factual material, you can combine your sources, separated by semi-colons, and just put one note at the end of the paragraph or group of sentences to which they apply. List the sources in the order in which you drew on them for the material in the paragraph. If you have a group of paragraphs, or a subsection, which all draws on the same factual material, you can just put one note at the beginning of the section/group. In this case, the note would read something like “factual material in this section comes from the following sources: ...” or “The factual material in this and the next ___ paragraphs is drawn from: ...” How to Cite There are a variety of different methods of citation. I don’t care which one you choose, but you should to be consistent throughout. If you are doing in text citations (the MLA method) be sure to include the page number along with the author in the parenthesis, and that the full bibliographic citation appears at the back in a “references” section. If you cite a web site, in addition to providing the address you must name the organization or individual who holds the copyright or operates the site. And be sure to think about the site ownership if your paper itself – what does it suggest about the information itself? If you are accessing material that is available in print (e.g. newspaper articles, some journal articles), give the citation for the printed information.