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Imagine this scene: it's a dark and stormy evening, and your friend says to you, "It's
going to be a great day for a picnic tomorrow!" "Where did you hear that?" you ask. "On the
6:00 news." Whether you realize it or not, you've just asked your friend to cite the
source of the information they just shared, and they've provided an informal citation.
This citation helps you understand why your friend is suggesting a picnic when it's storming
outside, and helps you determine how likely it is that the next day will actually be great
picnic weather. It would also let you verify that your friend didn't misunderstand or misinform
you by giving you a place to double check the facts. Citing sources is done in many
different types of writings and in different more and less formal methods. In college research
writing it is done formally and following a specific style. Two common styles are APA and MLA. Citing sources is a very
important part of your work as a college student. It is a practice that, first, allows you to
clearly let your audience know where you gathered the information you used in creating your
writing, speech, website, or other communication. Second, it helps support your ideas and arguments
to show the work of experts is standing behind you. And third, it documents where you got
your information so that you are not guilty of plagiarism. A quick note on terminology.
Many different terms are used by different people when talking about citing. Some of
these terms have distinct meanings, and others are simply different terms that mean the same
thing. Here's a rundown of the most common terms. The first term is citing. It may also
be called documentation. These are general terms that refer to the whole process of telling
your audience exactly where your information came from. The second term is in text citation.
These are also called parenthetical references. These little bits of shorthand do 3 things:
first they give you a way to give credit to the source where you found the information you
just used. Second, they point your readers to the specific page where they could find
that particular idea or quotation. Third, the in text citation refers your reader to
the corresponding entry in your References page where they can find the details they
need to locate that source themselves. The third term is References. You may know this
as a bibliography or works cited. It refers to the list found at the end of your paper
that has the complete entry for each information source you cite. So, when you cite your sources,
it's a combination of these two closely related parts: the in text citations which are scattered
throughout your work and give, in shorthand, credit to the author and source of each quote
or piece of information, and the references page, which gives your readers more specific
information about those sources you refer to in the in text citations. You'll learn
more about how to create References and in text citations in the next videos in this
series.