How to cite sources in a school research paper

How do you use what you have read in a school research paper while making clear which words and ideas belong to someone else? The answer starts before you format the final reference list. Keep track of your sources as you read. Separate copied wording from your own notes, and show readers where borrowed material comes from.

Why the source matters

Ithaca College Library explains citation as a way to credit authors and let readers trace ideas to their sources. A citation gives readers a route back to the material you used. Correct formatting helps them follow that route. The truth of the source or its claim is a separate question.

The Modern Language Association describes plagiarism as presenting another person's ideas, words or complete work as your own. It can involve an uncredited paraphrase as well as copied sentences, and it can happen accidentally. Even when you change the wording, you still need to credit the source of the idea.

Choose the style and keep source notes

First, find out which citation style your teacher requires. University at Albany Libraries advises writers to check the required format and follow its rules. Schools can require different styles. The guidance here covers APA 7 and MLA 9; use whichever style your teacher assigns consistently.

As you take notes, record the source and the relevant page, where one exists. Clearly mark copied words as quotations. Purdue University's Online Writing Lab recommends recording these details while working with the passage. Keep the source attached to your paraphrases too. This keeps notes in your own words connected to the original.

Common knowledge depends on your readers and the context. The College of DuPage's guidance advises citing statistics and information your readers are unlikely to know. If you are unsure whether a fact counts as common knowledge for the assignment, cite it.

Quote, paraphrase or summarise deliberately

A quotation uses the source's exact words and credits the author. Use one when the wording itself matters. Keep the words inside quotation marks unchanged unless you mark the changes, and include a citation.

A paraphrase restates a passage in your own words while preserving its meaning. University of Arizona Libraries warns against merely changing a few words or rearranging them. A summary gives the main ideas briefly, rather than restating a particular passage in detail. As Purdue's guidance makes clear, both paraphrases and summaries need to credit the source.

To paraphrase, read until you understand the passage. Put it aside, then write from that understanding. Then compare your version with the original. Check that the wording is your own and that the meaning remains accurate. If the meaning has changed, revise the paraphrase. It needs to be accurate as well as cited.

What a full reference contains

A reference needs enough detail to identify the work you used, including more than its web address. The details and their order depend on the style and the kind of source. Collect the information from the work itself before formatting the entry.

For APA, the University of Nevada, Reno's writing centre gives the basic framework as author, date, title and source. Check an example for your source type to see how those details fit together. Source details and punctuation differ for books, webpages and journal articles.

For MLA 9, Purdue lists the core elements in this order: author; title of source; title of container; other contributors; version; number; publisher; publication date; location. Include only the elements that apply to the work. Check which ones are present in your source.

The official MLA Style Center explains a container through the example of a short story in an anthology: the story is the source and the anthology is its container. Keep those titles distinct. Location can identify pages or an online source; where a source has a DOI, MLA prefers it to a URL.

Connect the passage to its reference

The short citation in your text tells readers which full entry to look up. In MLA, for a simple source with one author, identify the author and the relevant page when available. If you have already named the author in the sentence, leave the name out of the parentheses. Where the Works Cited entry begins with a title, that title can be the identifying element.

MLA page references can locate paraphrases as well as quotations. If a source has no page numbers, leave them out. Keep the author or title that connects the citation to the entry. Excelsior University's guidance allows stable sections, such as chapters, as location markers; avoid ebook location numbers that depend on an app or device.

APA 7 uses author and date. A typical paraphrase includes the author's surname and publication year. Page numbers are optional for paraphrases, though helpful for locating material in a long work. For a direct quotation, include author, year and page number where available, using p. for one page or pp. for several. Without pages, use a suitable locator such as a paragraph or section.

Check quotation length and missing details

Quotation layout also differs. In MLA, prose quotations of four typed lines or fewer normally go within double quotation marks. Longer quotations, and quotations spanning two or more paragraphs even if shorter than four lines, form a separate indented block without quotation marks. APA uses a different threshold: quotations of 40 words or more take block format without quotation marks. Both formats still require citations.

Check the guide when information is missing. In APA, use n.d. in the date position when there is no date, rather than guessing a year. If no author is supplied, the title takes the author's position. First check whether an organisation is named as the author, even if no individual is named.

Use the guide to check the finished list

MLA calls its end list Works Cited. Put it on a separate page, alphabetise entries by their first item, usually the author's surname, double-space them and use a hanging indent of half an inch. Entries correspond to sources cited in the paper.

For an ordinary APA paper's recoverable sources, match citations to entries in a list titled References. Begin it on a new page, double-space it, alphabetise by the first author's surname and use hanging indents of half an inch. Keep both lists limited to sources cited in the paper.

Use the official MLA Style Center's interactive practice template to learn how to put an entry together. Then check it with the MLA Handbook. If you use a citation generator, follow CUNY School of Professional Studies' advice to check its output against the source and correct errors. Compare author, title, date and location with the work and the required guide.

Put it into practice

Before handing in the paper, check that you have marked borrowed wording. Make sure paraphrases keep the original meaning and citations lead to matching entries. A reader should be able to follow the connection between a passage in your paper and the source behind it.

To practise on a draft, One Young India's Learnacy Writing Studio offers research paper and academic essay formats, with format-specific guidance, citation tools, and drafting and revision support.