 Writing citations for your papers takes time, and sometimes it can feel annoying to have to learn new citation styles, so you might wonder, why do I have to do it? Well, here's the thing. When you write academic papers, you're entering into a scholarly conversation. It can be a lively conversation with strong opinions on all sides. You read others' ideas and opinions, then you respond to them, adding your own ideas and opinions. When you cite the ideas and opinions you respond to, you're furthering the scholarly conversation. But if you only read and respond to writers who are deemed uninformed, unqualified, or unreliable, most people won't be interested in your paper's conclusions. So people also look at your citations to evaluate your credibility. If they can't trust the facts and ideas you cite, they probably won't trust your paper's conclusions. Another good reason to cite is that you don't want to steal other people's ideas without giving them credit for it. You're showing respect to another person when you quote them as the author of the idea that you really agree with. There's a famous quote by a famous scientist that illustrates this idea pretty well. A lot of our best ideas were made possible by people who came before us, so why not show our gratitude by giving credit where credit is due? So yes, writing citations can be a little annoying, but it is important. And if you're having a hard time getting the hang of it, your librarians are here to help.