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First-Year Writing Seminar

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Citing Sources

Citing Your Sources

Citation...

  • Helps others recreate and understand your research process. Someone reading your paper can retrieve the sources you used to build your argument.
  • Situates your work inside a scholarly conversation about your topic. Current research builds on past research, and future research builds on current and past research! Citation lets us follow how scholarship develops over time.
  • is required in order to maintain academic integrity/avoid plagiarism.

ZoteroBib

Advantages of this citation generator: 

  • Free and ad-free
  • You don't need to download any software or create an account
  • Accurate
  • Easy to use

Limitations: 

  • You can't create folders for different classes or assignments
  • You lose your citations when you clear browser cache 

Links:

**If you want to create folders for different classes or assignments, or to have your citations save after you clear your browser cache, you'll want to set up Zotero. 

Download Zotero | BC Zotero guide

Citation Styles

There are different citation styles. You are most likely to use MLA in your First-Year Writing papers, but there are others including Chicago Manual of Stye and APA that you might encounter as well. Find more about citation styles at Major Citation Styles.

MLA Citation Resources

BC's MLA Guide: This research guide provides links to external resources as well as helpful information about accurately citing your sources.

Purdue OWL MLA Citation Guide: This is an incredibly useful resource for citing just about anything in MLA Style. The OWL also offers guidance on formatting MLA papers, annotated bibliographies, and other assignments. This is an especially good place to go if you need to cite a less common source, such as a video or interview.

MLA FAQ: The MLA maintains a helpful website where they answer user questions. Search the FAQ database or submit your own question. 

 

Getting help with citation

Ask a librarian for help with: find good resources about effective citation, provide citation examples for any source type, advise on citation workflow, and set up Zotero. 

Ask your professor for questions like: Which citation style should I use? Is this paraphrase too close to the original language? Is this an accurate summary? Is this citation correct? Is my bibliography correct?