SSI1-149: Transgressive Bodies: Write & Cite

Your librarians at Collins Library have prepared two-page overviews--with examples--for several commonly used citation styles.

The citation style you use typically depends on the academic discipline involved. Remember to always check with your professors first to find out which citation style they would like you to use!

Which sources do we cite?

In academic work, we cite ALL sources that we use in any way.  Sources can include:

• Texts, whether formally published (as in books or journal articles), informally published (as in webpages), or unpublished (as in notes or manuscripts)
• Images (art, diagrams, or other graphics)
• Music (compositions, recordings, performances)
• Videos, films, live performances
• Computer code or solved mathematical problems
• Interviews or other important conversations
• Architectural or engineering designs, whether formally patented or not

When do we cite our sources?

We cite our sources whenever we use them in any way or fashion:

• As background to our argument
• As an example of an argument we are agreeing with, arguing against, or something in between
• When we borrow language
• Word for word (a quotation)
• Paraphrase
• "Apt phrase"
• When we use ideas or structures

Collins Library supports two robust knowledge management tools:

RefWorks, an entirely web-based product; and

Zotero, an extension that lives in your browser.

Why should you use a knowledge management tool?  There are both practical and more conceptual advantages:

• You can easily save bibliographic information about all of your sources in a single place
• You can generate bibliographies in dozens of citation styles
• You can organize and re-organize your sources to fit any project
• Over time, you will build a personal library of sources that will make it easier to reflect on and make connections between all of the research you have done for your separate classes, which is a key goal of a liberal arts education
• You will have developed an impressive bibliography that you can continue to consult and add to when you are in graduate or professional school or are in your first job after college