1. What is a citation?
A citation is a short note that tells your reader where you got a piece of information: who wrote it, what it’s called, where it was published, and when.
Citations come in two parts that work as a team:
- In-text citation: a tiny note inside your writing, like (Smith) or (Smith, 2021), right after the borrowed idea.
- Full citation: the complete details, listed on a page at the end of your paper called Works Cited (MLA) or References (APA).
Think of the in-text citation as a sign that points to the full citation, and the full citation as a map to the original source.
2. Why cite your sources?
- It’s honest. Someone else did the research or had the idea. A citation gives them credit, just like you’d want credit for your own work.
- It helps your readers. They can find your sources, learn more, and check your facts.
- It makes you more believable. Showing that experts back up your points makes your argument stronger.
- It shows your hard work. Your teacher can see how much research you did.
- It protects you from plagiarism, which can lead to a zero on the assignment or worse.
3. What is plagiarism?
Plagiarism means presenting someone else’s words, ideas, or work as your own, without giving them credit. It counts even if you didn’t mean to do it.
Common types
| Type | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| Copy and paste | Copying sentences from a website into your paper without quotation marks and a citation. |
| Word swapping (“patchwriting”) | Keeping the original sentence but swapping in a few synonyms. It’s still their sentence! |
| Missing citation | Paraphrasing well in your own words but forgetting to say where the idea came from. |
| Someone else’s work | Turning in work written by a friend, a family member, a paid service, or an AI tool as if you wrote it. |
| Self-plagiarism | Turning in your own old paper for a new assignment without asking your teacher. |
About AI tools: Every school and teacher has different rules. Always check before using AI for an assignment. If you’re allowed to use it, be open about how you used it, and never present AI-written text as your own writing. Also, AI tools sometimes make up sources that don’t exist, so always find and read the real source yourself.
What can happen?
Depending on your school, plagiarism can mean redoing the assignment, getting a zero, a note in your school record, or losing a spot on a team or in a club. Later on, colleges and jobs take it very seriously too.
The good news: plagiarism is easy to avoid. Take careful notes, write down where every fact came from, and cite as you go.
4. When do I need to cite?
Cite it ✅
- Exact words you copy (use quotation marks too)
- Ideas or information you put in your own words (paraphrase)
- Summaries of an article, video, or book
- Facts and statistics most people wouldn’t already know (“About 30% of…”)
- Pictures, charts, maps, music, and videos you include
No need to cite ❌
- Your own thoughts, opinions, and experiences
- Results from your own experiment or survey
- Common knowledge: facts most people know, or that you can find in lots of places without anyone being credited (“The Earth orbits the Sun.” “George Washington was the first U.S. president.”)
Golden rule: If you’re not sure, cite it. Nobody ever lost points for an extra citation.
5. Quote, paraphrase, or summarize?
Here’s an original sentence from a made-up source by Jane Smith:
“Honeybees must visit about two million flowers to make a single pound of honey.”
| Method | What you do | Example (MLA) |
|---|---|---|
| Quote | Copy the exact words, put them in quotation marks, and cite. | Smith explains that bees “must visit about two million flowers to make a single pound of honey” (Smith). |
| Paraphrase | Rewrite the idea completely in your own words and sentence structure, then cite. | Making just one pound of honey takes bees millions of flower visits (Smith). |
| Summarize | Shrink the main idea of a longer passage into a sentence or two, then cite. | Smith shows how much work bees put into making honey (Smith). |
A trick for paraphrasing
- Read the passage until you understand it.
- Cover it up or close the tab.
- Write the idea from memory, as if you were explaining it to a friend.
- Compare with the original. If it’s too close, try again.
- Add your citation!
6. MLA vs. APA: what’s the difference?
Both are sets of rules for citing. Your teacher will tell you which one to use.
MLA (9th edition)
Used in: English, literature, history, art, and world languages.
Focus: Who wrote it.
List title: Works Cited
Names: Smith, Jane.
Dates: 5 Mar. 2021
APA (7th edition)
Used in: Science, psychology, health, and social studies.
Focus: When it was written (newer research matters in science).
List title: References
Names: Smith, J.
Dates: (2021, March 5)
Same website, two styles
MLA
APA
Title capitals
- MLA uses Title Case: capitalize the important words (How Bees Make Honey).
- APA uses sentence case in the reference list: capitalize only the first word, the first word after a colon, and names (How bees make honey).
The citation maker can fix this for you. Look for the Aa button under the title. For APA it will ask which words are names, because only you can know that (“Taylor Swift” keeps its capitals, “honey” doesn’t).
7. Chicago style and footnotes
Chicago style (from The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition) is popular in history classes. Instead of putting a citation in parentheses, you add a small footnote number to your sentence, and the full citation goes at the bottom of the page.
How footnotes work
- Put a raised number after the sentence that uses a source, after the period or comma: …one pound of honey.1
- Write the matching note at the bottom of the page. The first time you cite a source, use the full note.
- Every time after that, use the short note: just the author’s last name and a short title.
- At the end of your paper, list every source in a Bibliography, sorted A–Z.
Honeybees visit about two million flowers to make a single pound of honey.1 That’s a lot of work for one jar!2
1
2
Bibliography entry
Notes vs. bibliography: spot the difference
- Notes list names normally (Jane Smith); the bibliography flips the first one (Smith, Jane).
- Notes separate the parts with commas; the bibliography uses periods.
- For books, notes put the publisher and year in parentheses: When You Reach Me (Yearling, 2011).
Adding footnotes: in Google Docs, choose Insert → Footnote (Ctrl+Alt+F). In Word, choose References → Insert Footnote. The numbers update by themselves!
Older guides use “Ibid.” for a note that repeats the one before it. The 18th edition prefers the short note instead, and so does this site.
8. In-text citations
Put a short citation right after any sentence that uses a source. It matches the first word(s) of the full citation, so readers can find it on your list.
| Situation | MLA | APA |
|---|---|---|
| One author | (Smith) | (Smith, 2021) |
| With a page number | (Smith 23) | (Smith, 2021, p. 23) |
| Two authors | (Smith and Patel) | (Smith & Patel, 2021) |
| Three or more authors | (Smith et al.) | (Smith et al., 2021) |
| No author | (“How Bees Make Honey”) | (How Bees Make Honey, 2021) |
| No date | (Smith) | (Smith, n.d.) |
| Name in your sentence | Jane Smith explains that… | Smith (2021) explains that… |
Websites usually don’t have page numbers, so leave them out. Never make one up!
9. Works Cited, References, Bibliography… which one?
| Name | What it is | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Works Cited | A list of every source you actually cited in your paper. | MLA papers |
| References | The same idea as Works Cited, but in APA style. | APA papers |
| Bibliography | A list of every source you used for research, even ones you didn’t quote. | When your teacher asks for one, often for research projects and science fairs |
| Annotated Bibliography | A bibliography where each source has a short paragraph (an annotation) underneath. | Often assigned before a big research paper |
Writing an annotation
In 3–5 sentences, answer these questions:
- Summary: What is the source about?
- Trust: Who made it, and why is it reliable (or not)?
- Use: How will it help your project?
The citation maker can build all of these. Just pick the page type above your list.
10. Where do I find the info on a website?
Websites hide their details in different places. Here’s where to look:
Hint: Can’t find a date or author? That’s fine. The citation maker shows you what to do. But a page with no author and no date might not be a great source. See the next lesson.
11. Can I trust this source?
Before you cite something, give it a quick check. Ask yourself these five questions:
| Question | Good signs 👍 | Warning signs 👎 |
|---|---|---|
| Who made it? | An expert, a university, a museum, a government agency (.gov), or a well-known news organization | No author, no “About” page, or anonymous posts |
| Why was it made? | To inform or teach | To sell you something, or to make you angry or scared |
| When was it made? | Recent, or recently updated (very important for science and news) | Old information on a fast-changing topic |
| Where did they get it? | It cites its own sources or links to research | Big claims with no evidence |
| Do other sources agree? | Other trustworthy sites say the same thing | You can’t find the claim anywhere else |
Wikipedia, AI chatbots, and social media are good places to start learning about a topic, but most teachers don’t want you to cite them. Follow the links to the original sources, read those, and cite them instead.
12. Final checklist before you turn it in
- Every quote has quotation marks and a citation.
- Every paraphrase and borrowed fact has a citation.
- Every in-text citation matches an entry on your list (and every entry is used, unless it’s a bibliography).
- The list is on its own page at the end, titled Works Cited (MLA) or References (APA).
- Entries are in A–Z order.
- Double-spaced with a 0.5-inch hanging indent (the first line sticks out, the rest are indented).
- Titles are in the right style: italics for big works (books, websites), “quotation marks” for parts (articles, pages) in MLA.
- You double-checked the citation maker’s work against your source, especially anything filled in by Autofill. Websites sometimes label things wrong (for example, listing the website as the author).
How to add a hanging indent: In Google Docs, select your list, then go to Format → Align & indent → Indentation options → Special indent: Hanging. In Word, go to Paragraph → Indentation → Special: Hanging.
13. Images, podcasts, interviews & more
Every kind of source follows the same idea: who made it, what it’s called, where it came from, and when. Here’s what changes for a few common ones.
Images and artwork
MLA
APA
Pictures need citations too, including ones in slideshows and posters! For art you saw in person, list the museum and city. For an image online, add the website and URL. No title? Describe it in a few words, like Photograph of a honeybee.
Podcast episodes
MLA
APA
The hosts go first. MLA adds “host” after their names, and APA adds “(Host)”. The episode title comes before the podcast’s name, just like an article inside a magazine.
Interviews
MLA
APA
Interviewed someone yourself? That’s excellent research! MLA lists it as a “Personal interview.” APA doesn’t put it in References, because your readers can’t go listen to it, so you only cite it inside your paper.
Encyclopedia entries
MLA
APA
Online encyclopedias change often, so the “last updated” date matters. If there’s no date, APA asks for the day you looked (“Retrieved … from”).
Social media posts
MLA
APA
Use the person’s real name with their @username in brackets. The words of the post take the place of a title (APA uses only the first 20 words). And remember: a post is only as reliable as the person who wrote it, so check who made it.
14. Quiz: Do I need to cite this?
Read each situation and decide. You’ll see the answer right away.