A citation is a reference to a source of information you’ve used for your assignment. It gives key information about the source so the reader can evaluate its credibility and even locate it if they would like to double-check the information or read the source fully.

There are various citation styles (e.g., APA Style, MLA Style, Chicago Style), each with different requirements for what information to include in a citation and how that information should be formatted. These requirements are set through each citation style’s most recent style guide.

Why We Cite

Although in some cultures it is a sign of respect to use the words or ideas of others without giving credit to them, this is not permitted in Canadian higher education, where a core principle of academic life is to fully acknowledge the work of others when it has guided and informed your own.

Academics engage in conversations to advance their knowledge and understanding of a subject. This happens mostly in written form through the publication of scholarly materials. In these academic conversations, it is necessary and expected that all prior thought is acknowledged and that all contributors to the conversation are credited. As a student, you too are a contributor to these conversations, and you therefore must credit all the sources from which you drew information.

Attributions

This chapter is an adaptation of 4.1 What is a Citation by Donnie Calabrese; Emma Russell; Jasmine Hoover; and Tammy Byrne and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. You can download this book free at Academic Integrity Handbook Copyright © 2020.

This chapter is also an adaptation of 4.2 Why We Cite by Donnie Calabrese; Emma Russell; Jasmine Hoover; and Tammy Byrne and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. You can download this book free at Academic Integrity Handbook Copyright © 2020.