- It shows the reader you have done the proper research by showing the sources of the information.
- It allows the reader to know where you found the information you are listing in your paper.
- Citing sources gives attribution to other's ideas and makes you a responsible scholar.
- To prevent plagiarism.
- Citing a source shows the reader that you took words, ideas, images, videos, comics, and another type of content from somewhere else.
What should I cite?
Ok, so let's say you are writing your paper and found the most amazing zine in a blog post, you want to use that blogger's idea, but are you supposed to cite a zine? The answer is always, yes. Cite everything.
- When you copy the exact words or a unique phrase
- Words or ideas presented in a:
- Magazines
- Books
- Newspapers
- Songs
- TV programs
- Movies
- Web pages
- Computer programs
- Letters
- Advertisements
- Zines and comics
-
- Information you gain through:
- Interviewing or conversing with another person
- Face to face
- Over the phone
- or in writing
- When you reprint any:
- Diagrams
- Illustrations
- Charts
- Pictures
- or other visual materials
- When you reuse or repost any electronically-available media, including images, audio, video, or other media
What shouldn't be cited?
- Writing your own lived experiences, your own observations and insights, your own thoughts, and your own conclusions about a subject
- When you are writing up your own results obtained through lab or field experiments
- When you use your own artwork, digital photographs, video, audio, etc.
- When you are using "common knowledge," things like folklore, common sense observations, myths, urban legends, and historical events (but not historical documents)
- When you are using generally-accepted facts, e.g., pollution is bad for the environment, including facts that are accepted within particular discourse communities, e.g., in the field of composition studies, "writing is a process" is a generally-accepted fact.
*Adapted from Purdue Online Writing Lab: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/02/