Citation styles were created by publishers to help systemize the publishing process. Because different publishers work with different subject matter, their citation styles vary depending on the needs of their readers. Some style guides focus more heavily on data and some on textual material. At Bethel, the two most commonly used style guides are APA and MLA, though some courses also use Chicago/Turabian. APA tends to be more oriented around data, and MLA around textual sources. Chicago, because it publishes journals in a wide variety of disciplines, has guidelines that cover both areas well.
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While writing a paper or when instructed by your professor, you may find that you need to provide a citation for a resource that you have used. Citations are key in academic writing since you need to clearly show what is your writing and what is others. Failure to show what you have used from others can lead to charges of plagiarism.
In short, plagiarism is simply passing another person's work as your own. It is a form of cheating. As such, penalties for plagiarism are pretty severe and can result in failure of an assignment, a course, or even an academic career. To avoid charges of plagiarism, document where you get your information and provide a citation of where you found your information. When using other sources, you'll generally either use a director quotation or you'll be paraphrasing. In both situations, you'll need to provide a citation to the source that you used. If you have questions about your use of a source, ask your professor; don't try to pass off the work as your own!
If an author has said something that is perfect for your paper in a sentence or two, feel free to quote it. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
Unlike quotations, paraphrasing is when you use your own words to describe what another author is saying. It is trickier since you are using your own words. Here are a few things to keep in mind when paraphrasing:
There are many online resources that can help you with citations. Two types of tools are mentioned below.
Citation Hints
Both the catalog and the databases provide an easy to use tools that gets you a citation quickly. You just find your resource and the locate the "Cite" button, and a citation for that resource shows up. Here are the pages that discuss this tool:
Citation Managers
For projects that require lots of citations, a citation management tool may work well. See the following page about these sorts of resources:
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