Giving Credit to your Sources

Citations are used to acknowledge which parts of a paper reference particular sources. Citations are needed to indicate paraphrasing, direct quotations, showing that an idea is not your own, or that information was obtained from another source other than yourself. If you do not cite your sources, you are plagiarizing, which is a serious offence (see Plagiarism). See SFU’s Library Page on Plagiarism for more information on plagiarism and to complete a tutorial to test your expertise on plagiarism.

There are three main different styles of citation: MLA, APA and Chicago.

• MLA: MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (Modern Language Association of America), 6th ed., 2003
• APA: Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th ed., 2001
• Chicago: The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed., 2003

Online Citation Makers

​OSLIS  *Ms. Trees’ personal favourite
BibMe
NoodleTools Express 
EasyBib
Purdue OWL