CLTR 1501: Introduction to French Culture : Cite Sources

Research and writing are like a conversation. When you decide to write about a topic, you start with researching what has already been published or shared on that topic. You may find that you agree with some author's ideas, disagree with some, build on others, etc. Likely, you'll plan to incorporate their ideas into your own work. To acknowledge this conversation you are having with others and their ideas, you will need to acknowledge and document your sources. In academic papers, projects, and presentations, this documentation of sources follows a specific style guide.

You should include cite sources in your final project and presentation for many of the below reasons: 

• Showcase the scope and depth of your research: citations indicate which sources you read, consulted, and integrated as you built your new work. A bibliography or reference list is a visualization of that research; it shows who and what ideas you are conversing with. And remember, which sources you choose to cite and reference is important - Whose voices, expertise, and experience did you seek out and center?

• Direct your readers: citations are designed to include sufficient information to lead our readers directly (or as closely as possible!) to the sources we used so they can read them themselves. 

• Comply with the ethical and legal considerations of using another's intellectual labor and property: books, articles, and most creative/intellectual output are often covered by copyright and other legal protections. Including citations for a source to acknowledge that the ideas belong to someone else is important and helps you to avoid plagiarism (the passing off of someone's ideas or output as your own). It also acknowledges the contributions of the author's intellectual and creative labor.

You will need to reference a source through a note and bibliographic entry when:

•  You directly quote an author's words. Make sure that you enclose the quote in quotation marks, or in the case of a long quote, that you block it by indenting it on a new line. 

•  You paraphrase or summarize an author's ideas or work.  Remember, you want to give credit and acknowledge the author's intellectual work; this includes their ideas or other output and not just their direct words. When you paraphrase a source, you want to write a summary in your own words of the information or ideas shared in that source and integrate it into your argument. The goal isn't to just restate these ideas; You want to also carefully introduce these ideas, frame them, and connect them to other ideas or information shared by other authors in other sources.

In both of these scenarios, you will need to include an in-text citation for that source within your project or presentation, and add a reference entry for the source in your bibliography at the end of your project or presentation. Remember, you need to document when you use information or ideas from a source whenever you mention it throughout your work - not just the first time you draw on that source. In fact, you may end up including multiple notes to the same source throughout your paper. 

These resources outline some or all of the rules and best practices for formatting in-text citations (included in the body of a paper or presentation slides) and references (included at the end of a paper or presentation) according to APA style (American Psychological Association).