Citations

• Citations are used to indicate that an idea was used in your paper from someone else so you give them credit.
• Not using citations is considered PLAGIARISM (stealing someone else’s work) and will get you into severe trouble.
• Citations should go at end of an idea that comes from 1 source, so everything from beginning of paragraph (or since last citation) until a citation comes from that source.  In example below, everything in red italics is from (Smith, 2007 – who talks about plants) and everything in blue bold is from (Johnson, 2001 – who talks about animals).
• Plants make their food by process of photosynthesis.  This process involves taking in of carbon dioxide and water to make sugar by using energy from sunlight.  Oxygen is given off as a by product (Smith, 2007). Animals grow by process of respiration because they cannot make their own food.  This process involves the taking in of sugars by eating plants or other animals and breaking down the sugar into energy with oxygen taken in from air into carbon dioxide and water (Johnson, 2001). Interestingly, plants also need to utilize the process of respiration to break down the sugars they make in photosynthesis so they can grow (Smith, 2007).
• Citations should appear in text as (author last name, year) for example, (Smith, 2007).

Bibliography

• Bibliography (also known as References Cited page) is where you list all of the sources that you used in your paper.
• Format your papers for bibliography entries by choosing format → paragraph → special → hanging indent.
• We use APA format for our citations.  Here are some websites to help you:
• http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
• http://www.calvin.edu/library/knightcite/index.php (make sure you select APA!)
• The general format for a book source is:
• Author.  (year).  Title of article.  In Title of book.  City of publication: Publisher.  Page #’s.
• Book sources are generally preferred and more reliable than internet sources.
• The general format for an internet source is:
• Author.  (Year).  Title of article.  Accessed on (insert date you found article).  From (insert full web address).
• Internet sources are notoriously bad at listing author and date.  You may have to use the site name as the author (ex. Wikipedia.com) if none is listed.
• The 2 most critical aspects of Bibliography are:
• All information is present (author, date, title, etc…)
• Each source you cite in your paper is present in your bibliography.
• If you don’t use a source in your paper, then don’t put it in your bibliography!
• If you use a source in your paper, it had better be in your bibliography!