Detailed Instructions On How To Cite A University Research Paper
The one thing that your University education no doubt stresses on is to include citations to your papers. This is the best way to prove that you have indeed studied and conducted research on the subject of your essays and assignments; also showing the level of authenticity of your work.
What are citations?
If you are still unsure what it means to cite your work - in simple terms, it means to provide evidence of where you have used information from and give the necessary credit of your ideas and research to where it is due to.
Citations can be of two kinds. Primary ones are the kinds that you have collected directly - such as if you have interviewed someone or observed something first hand. Secondary citations are the kinds that you have collected from sources - such as books or essays, films or pre-recorded interviews.
How to use them?
Now that you know what citations are, how exactly can you use them?
Firstly, you can directly quote from your source. This means that you copy out the point you are using, word for word from the source and include it in your essay within quotation marks. You should also mention where you have received the quotation from.
Or you could paraphrase. In this case, what you should do is explain or summarize the key points within a certain source, without using all its words exactly. In this situation, you don’t need to provide quotation marks but you should still be including the name of the source that you have used.
The key point to remember here is to remember to attribute the quote or the summary to the original author and the source when you include it in your essay.
Avoid plagiarism
The misuse of intellectual property is a very serious offence and especially in the academic world.
It is, therefore, important to ensure that you cite all your references and give credit where it is due instead of being caught plagiarizing.
Citation actually makes your essay stronger and proves that you have put an effort into researching the subject.
Unfortunately, academic writing is full of these kinds of rules of writing that beginners are usually not entirely aware of. It is essential to educate yourself about all of this including essay formats before you begin working on your assignments and papers.