 Citation is the practice of identifying the sources you have used in your writing. Citations are an important part of any college writing project because they allow your reader to follow the trail of your research and to verify the claims that you make in your writing. They also give credit to the sources that you use to advance your argument. Giving proper acknowledgement also ensures that you do not plagiarize, which is a very serious academic offense. To avoid plagiarism, you should include a citation after every quote, which is when you use the author's exact words for added effect, paraphrase, which is when you reword an idea from a source, or summarize, which is when you condense information from a source. In addition to protecting you from plagiarism, citing your sources shows that you recognize that your research and scholarship builds upon the work and the ideas of others that came before you. Your works cited page serves as a list of all of the sources that you have used in your paper and shows that you have given proper credit to these sources. When you write a paper and create a work cited page, you become part of the scholarly conversation and citing your sources shows how your work fits within that conversation. This is also why all credible academic sources cite their sources. Most citations have two parts, the in-text citation and the reference. The first part is an in-text citation, which shows readers exactly where you have used information from outside sources in your paper. Outside sources can include websites, scholarly journal articles, and books, among others. In-text citations provide a roadmap to the second part of a citation, the reference. The reference includes more information about each source, including the author, the date, the full title, and the web address. You will find citations at the bottom of the page in footnotes or in a reference or work cited page at the end of a paper. The information in each citation makes it easy for your readers to find the exact sources that you used so that they can read them for themselves. You will see citations in all academic journal articles, but you might notice that they sometimes look different depending on the sources that you use. This is because there are different citation styles created for specific disciplines. For example, MLA is the citation style of the Modern Language Association and is often used in English journals. The American Psychological Association's APA style is used most often in social sciences like psychology and criminal justice, while the Council of Science Editors' CSC style is used in the biological sciences. You might also see other citation styles like AMA, Chicago, and Blue Book in your research journey. Your professors will let you know which citation sources they require for your assignments. We know that citing properly can be overwhelming. The IRC librarians are here to assist you with all of your citation needs. Check out the APA, CSC, and MLA LibGuides, or contact a librarian directly for personal assistance with any citation style.