English 102: College Writing and Research

What are citations? 

Citations properly document where you found ideas, concepts, quotations, images, and more. Citations contain enough information to help a reader locate the source that you used. They typically contain information like title, publisher, year, and a url. 

In-Text Citations and Bibliography/Works Cited References

You will use "in-text" citations in the main body of your project that note who wrote the work (author) and the page number where you found the information. Sometimes, you will need to include the year that the work was published.

At the end, you will have a full list of the works that you cited in your project; this list is called a "bibliography," or a "works cited" page. 

Why are they important? 

Citations give credit to those whose ideas have contributed to your research. Their work deserves to be acknowledged and recognized. Properly citing others work increases your ethos as a scholar and writer — citation is a respected and valuable scholarly practice. 

Have questions about citations? 

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How to include citations in non-research paper projects 

By the end of the semester, you will create an audio or visual representation of your research or a different type of writing project like a feature magazine story. Citation conventions change based on the genre but...

ALL projects should include citations or documentation of sources in some way

• For a feature story - writers include a hyperlink to a source that they reference or would provide more context to their story -- they often do not directly quote from another publication but will summarize or briefly reference the other work. They also provide names and context to the people that they interviewed and directly quoted in a story - which is another form of citation (where did you get your information from)
• For infographics - creators include hyperlinks, URLS, or full MLA/APA citations of their sources at the bottom of their infographic AND/OR include the source publication near the provided information. 
• For a podcast or video - you should provide URLs or full MLA/APA citations to document your sources and provide credits for any audio or visual materials that you used your project. You can provide these either in a separate written document or in the description of the platform where you upload your project. 

Examples of how to include citations in various non-paper projects

Below are links to different genres with annotations about their use of citations - works best in Chrome