Citations Understanding how and when to reference, citing in text and using a bibliography

Citation - definition 1 a quotation from or reference to a book, paper, or author, especially in a scholarly work (assignment): the majority of the citations are to work published during the past twenty years. synonyms :quotation, quote, extract, excerpt, passage, line, piece; cite Citing – definition 1 refer to (a passage, book, or author) as evidence for or justification of an argument or statement, especially in a scholarly work. authors who are highly regarded by their peers tend to be cited. he does not cite any source for this assertion.

Introduction to citations

Basics of Citation There are a number of specific styles for properly citing academic work. The most popular styles include MLA – Modern Language Association APA – American Psychology Association Chicago - Chicago Manual of Style Harvard - Harvard Style referencing Each of these styles are slightly different. The style choice is only important when you are specifically told to use one style – mostly at university. At school, the most important things is that, no matter the style you use, you remain consistent throughout your work.

Today we are focussing on creating a bibliography A Bibliography is a collection of books and resources (citations) that you have used in your assignment, even if not quoted. A Reference List is a list of works (books) directly referred to in your essay or research paper (this is also know as Works Cited in the MLA style) In lower grades (7-10) at school, students are asked to use an in-text reference system (MLA, APA, Harvard) and a bibliography. This allows you to show the teacher all of the resources you have accessed, even if you didn’t get to quote them.

Creating the Bibliography You need to arrange a bibliography at the end of your work in the order and style to suit the specific form of reference you have chosen e.g. MLA. The most universal form of referencing is MLA and we will use this in-text style in Stage 5 for referencing. The best form for History is Chicago. See your teacher to learn more about this and whether its appropriate for you. We will title our list of citations as Bibliography and use MLA as the style for listing the books (citations)

Presenting your bibliography See MLA ebook for specific examples on how to organise your citations.

Two main resources often used by students are websites and books

Activity Work in pairs to correctly cite three resources provided to you in class. Book – see attachment (AJP Taylor) Website - t.html t.html Textbook – school textbook Unit 7.7 Read the sources before citing them Use the MLA Manual provided to assist you to correctly cite the resource Once you are happy with your response, show your teacher who will confirm that you are able to correctly cite resources.

Helpful resource There are some helpful resources online to support you in creating effective citations. Before these are of any help, you need to understand how they work – hopefully you now do. A free resource online is called This will automatically create your citation for you. Another resource is a software package called Endnote. This is relatively expensive and not really needed until University. It is good to know these resources exist.