Citing Sources In A Research Paper: Tips And Examples For Beginners

A research paper is one of the most critical assignments you will write as a student for any subject in your course of study. Unlike other academic assignments, this paper requires the students to have a critical approach, rhetorical thinking, straight approach, and well-planned structure. You cannot complete an effective assignment without taking data from authenticated sources for supporting your stance. You would need to develop a clear understanding of your subject and gather relevant materials to show that your stance is right. Students may also need to refute other arguments that oppose their stance and prove that their proposed method is the most effective and suitable.

Citation of sources in your research paper means that you give references of all the works you use from different authors and sources in your paper. This is important because of two reasons

  1. It helps the future researchers and students in determining the sources you have used for your paper and makes it easier for them to relate to your paper
  2. It enables you to write a plagiarism free paper when you cite all the sources you have used in your paper. While writing an academic assignment it is important to make sure that the work is original and based on your own ideas. If you take help from other published and unpublished works, it is best to cite them in your text

Citation of text in your paper follows different styles depending upon the subject you are addressing, the format you use and the requirements from your teacher.

Different subjects have different requirements for the citations in-text and author depending upon the subject you tackle and the work you address. The citation style for a research paper in math will be different from the one you use in general sciences or arts

The format you use for writing your paper determines the style and structure of the citations in your text and the body of your paper. MLA style stands for Modern languages Association while APA stands for American Psychological Association. Other popular formats of writing academic papers include the Chicago style and custom formatting styles

The requirements from your university or college will affect the style of your citation or references for the paper. There will be different specifications for footnotes, in-text citations, author names, publishing year, and the source

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