Citing

• Think of your research paper as a team effort between you and your sources.
• It's very simple: when in doubt, cite. That' s an ideal way to avoid plagiarism, which can result in hefty disciplinary action, including administrative withdrawal from the program.
• Provide a clear signal phrase to alert your reader that a quotation will follow. For example:

Norman Lindsey, author of the Australian literary classic The Magic Pudding, claims "..."

• Cite the material in quotes, unless the length exceeds 4 lines.
• If you have a quote of four lines or more, indent that quote and do not use quotation marks:

The third disturbance due to Bill's suspicions occurred while Bunyip Bluegum was in a grocer's shop. They had run out of tea and sugar, and happening to pass through the town of Bungledoo took the opportunity of laying in a fresh supply. If Bunyip hadn't been in the shop, as was pointed out afterwards, the trouble wouldn't have occurred (Lindsey 92).

• Follow the citation with a page number in parentheses.

• Use only the author's last name followed by a page number.
CORRECT: (Lindsey 16)

• Do not include the date of publication. Do not include a comma. Do not include an abbreviation for page.
INCORRECT: (Lindsey, 1918, p 16).

• At the end of the paper list the sources in your Works Cited page.

In-text Citation

• Use parenthetical documentation within the paper rather than footnotes at the bottom.
• Notice that in this example the author is not in the parenthesis because his name is included in the sentence.

Norman Lindsey, in his work The Magic Pudding, writes that "humor' s humor" (5).

• If, however, the author's name does not appear in the sentence, then his name would be added to the documentation as follows.

In The Magic Pudding, the author asserts that "humor's humor" (Lindsey 50).

• If more than one work by Norman Lindsey will be discussed, then add the title of the work to the documentation:

Lindsey asserts that "humor's humor" (Lindsey, The Magic Pudding 5).

• Note in every case the period is included after the parentheses.

Works Cited List
• The works cited list appears at the end of the paper.
• Begin the list on a new page.
• Center the words Works Cited at the top of the page.
• Double space between the title and the first entry.
• The entry should be flush left, and if a second line is needed for an entry, the line should be indented one half inch (it is called a hanging indent.)
• Double space between entries.

Continue to Section 5:  Sample Citations