How you cite your sources depends on the formatting style required by your professor. (See the "Citation Styles" tab above.) But the most common ways to cite are:
Within the text of your paper:
After the text of your paper:
See our "Citing Help" tab for much more information about this topic.
Have you ever heard the saying, "Give credit where credit is due?" When you properly cite a source in your paper or project, that's what you're really doing: giving credit.
It's important to give credit to the person who first thought of a good idea or said something worth quoting -- if you don't give credit, then it appears that you are claiming the credit for yourself. That's known as plagiarism. (See the "Plagiarism" tab, above.)
Don't claim credit, even accidentally. Give credit to the right person by citing your source.
