Here are my notes for a presentation I give on citing sources in college writing.
WHO GIVES AN APA?
Son of Citation Machine, Easy Bib and More Web and Old-school Tools for Citing Your Work
WHY IS CITING A BIG DEAL?
-Academic discourse and research
-Current cultural climate of plagiarism
WHY DOES CITING HAVE TO BE SO HARD?
-Changeover from printed texts with physical locations to disembodied etexts
-Competing interests between academic disciplines
-However, it doesn’t need to be so hard anymore! Use one of the systems on page 2 below to make your life easier.
THREE MAIN ELEMENTS IN DOCUMENTING SOURCES FOR ACADEMIC WRITING
1. Clearly mark in your writing the beginning of any words, ideas, or sequence of ideas that you borrow from someone else; use signal phrases and quotation marks
2. Mark the end of borrowed language/ideas with an in-text citation (APA or MLA) or footnote (CMS), which briefly identifies the source, and when appropriate closing quotation marks
3. Put a list of references at the end of the paper that tells the reader everything they need to know to find your sources.
Use a particular style of format and stick to it through the paper: APA, CMS, MLA, or another
APA American Psychological Assn In-text citations include author’s last name and year, and the page number for quotes: At least one writer (Mendham, 2010) has complained that APA style “makes her brain hurt” (p. 1)
CMS Chicago Manual of Style Raised (superscript) numbers to refer to footnotes or endnotes. Tracy Mendham says “Chicago is the mob boss of documentation systems.”2
MLA Modern Lang. Assn In-text citations include author’s last name and the page number. At least one writing specialist claims that “MLA style rocks” (Mendham 3).

TOOLS TO MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER
-Easy Bib: http://library.franklinpierce.edu:2048/login?url=http://www.easybib.com/ for FPU free account or http://www.easybib.com for MLA-only
-Microsoft Word 2007 and later: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/create-a-bibliography-HA010067492.aspx
-Zotero: http://www.zotero.org
-Son of Citation Machine: http://citationmachine.net/
EASY BIB (FREE THROUGH FRANKLIN PIERCE LIBRARY)
I always show students how to use Easy Bib if they’re struggling with sources. You can paste in a website to autocite or enter info manually. Easy Bib can will save your references—if you find out you have to write about the same book again, or use a different format style, Easy Bib
http://library.franklinpierce.edu:2048/login?url=http://www.easybib.com/ or http://www.easybib.com/
Son of Citation Machine is similar and popular with some students: http://citationmachine.net/
MICROSOFT WORD 2010 ($35)
This will make your life so much easier it should be worth the $35 the student edition will cost from IT and the time it will take to learn to use it.
A short YouTube tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3T6y2vU7nM
ZOTERO (FREE, ADD-ON FOR FIREFOX ONLY)
Zotero needs to be downloaded and added to your Firefox browser, but it is plain awesome for collecting sources when you are working on more than one computer and it will “grab” information off Amazon web pages about book info and journal info from online databases. It will also automatically add items by ISBN or DOI.
Here’s a demo video: http://www.zotero.org/blog/zotero-basics-getting-stuff-into-zotero/
“OLD SCHOOL”
The Cite feature in EBSCOhost and the good old Diana Hacker Writer’s Reference. I mark the pages I use most and now it’s faster than a website for tasks I do most often.
DON’T BE A STRANGER!
Come to the Center for Academic Excellence or use the Wensberg Writing Center for more help with writing or to learn to use the tools in this handout.
The Center for Academic Excellence
DiPietro Library, 1st floor
academicexcellence@franklinpierce.edu,
http://www.facebook.com/academicservices