Citing Sources
Well if you've been reading my pages, you'll notice that any secondary sources I use for my content are always citied. Citing sources is very important to get into the habit of. For one, it helps you avoid plagiarism; or taking another's work without credit. Also, it adds credibility to your own website As a webmaster, your subject is probably something you know a lot about. For example, I know a lot about Pokémon, for I've been a fan for over 10 years so I would be considered a creditable source for my own work. But, I don't know everything so that's when other sources come into play. Sources can be:
- Books
- Magazines
- Articles
- Journals
- Encyclopedias
- Periodicals
- Web sites
You should only cite from sources that are creditable. MSN, or CNN are creditable sources for example. Also be sure that the source is current (Fowler 2007).
What should be Cited
There are three major things that should be cited:
- Direct Quotations
- Paraphrasing
- Summaries
Direct quotations are quotes that people have said about your topic. You must include the quote, and a parenthetical citation to it. I'll explain what a parenthetical citation is next.
Paraphrasing is where you take what someone said and put it into your own words. Usually this is done is convey one particular idea someone has said using less words.
Summarizing and paraphrasing can be a little difficult to distinguish between the two. Either way, you need to use a parenthetical citation with both.
Commonly known knowledge about a subject that is accepted by most does not have to be cited. An example would be "there are 493 species of Pokémon"; that's common knowledge that is accepted and known.
How to Cite
MLA (Modern Language Association) is the most common way to cite a source. At the end of your page, you should list your sources. Generally, they are to be listed in alphabetical order (Fowler 2007). An example of how a web site would look cited would be:
AUTHOR LAST NAME, FIRST NAME. "WEB PAGE TITLE." WEBSITE NAME. DATE LAST UPDATED. DATE ACCESSED. URL.
As mentioned above, parenthetical citations are often needed. They go after your sentence you're citing before the period. In the MLA style, they look like this:
(Title/Author's Last Name Here then year of publication or page #)
Example: (Bonasera 2008) , or (Candide pg 8) Notice there are no commas that separates the author, year, title, or page number.
The type of parenthetical citation you use depends of the type of source you’re using. For example, you would use the author's last name and page # when citing from a book (Fowler 2007).
Source:
1 Fowler, Ramsey. The Little Brown Handbook. 10th edition. New York: Pearson, 2007.
