English Language - Writing & Research

Documenting
Sources
English Language by Farah Azad
Plagiarism
Just like the credits at the end of a movie, a work’s cited list at the end of
your paper gives proper credit to the people whose ideas and research
contributed to the final product.

The most important reason to document your sources is to avoid

plagiarism. It is a very simple rule: If the ideas or words aren’t your own,
document them through citation.

Plagiarism, whether intentional or not is unethical. The copyright laws of

many nations may even make plagiarism a crime punishable by fine or
imprisonment.

Plagiarism does not include the adoption of character types, general plots
or other ideas from existing work. You are allowed to borrow published
ideas and express them in a new and unique way.
 Terms of Documentation
Here are some important terms that you should understand.

Giving credit to and recognizing the ideas and research of others.

Crediting your
sources
The author’s name and page number following the text it references.
In-text citation

Notes that refer the reader to other publications for further reading.
Footnotes/
Endnotes
The full publication information of the sources you used in the in-text
Works cited
citations.
entry
 Referencing
Let’s move on to learn how to avoid plagiarism and use referencing in your work. Referencing
usually involves the two main parts as discussed below.

IN-TEXT CITATION REFERENCE LIST

In the body of the work. At the end of the work.

This part of the citation clearly shows the
source of the material used in the body of the
written work. There are formats for in-text
citations for different citation styles.
Author-date citation: Includes author’s
last name, year of publication and page
number when applicable. (Used in APA
style)
Author-page citation: Same as above,
except the year is not included. (Used in
MLA style)
The list of references at the end of a research
work includes full details of the in-text
citations from the body of the work. It is
different from a bibliography, which is a list
of other sources researched but not used in
your assignment.
The reference list is slightly different for each
style of citation but all of them include the
basic information such as author name,
publication date, source title and URL.
APA vs. MLA
APA and MLA are two different styles of
referencing which are most commonly used.
APA - American Psychological Association
(currently at it’s 7th edition)
MLA - Modern Language Association (currently
at it’s 9th edition)

In both styles, a source citation consists of:

A brief parenthetical citation in the text

A full reference at the end of the paper

However, citations look slightly different in each

style, with different rules for things like title
capitalization, author names, and placement of
the date.
 Types of In-text Citations
Citations can be parenthetical or narrative depending on the style of writing.

Parenthetical Narrative
Citation Citation

Azad states that the sessions

The sessions proved to be highly
APA (Author-date) proved to be highly educational
educational (Azad, 2024, p. 13).
(2024, p. 13).

Azad states that the sessions

The sessions proved to be highly
MLA (Author-page) proved to be highly educational
educational (Azad 13).
(13).
APA & MLA Formatting
APA and MLA are not just referencing styles, they also provide
guidelines on how to format a written paper. The general
guidelines are same for both styles of formatting:

Font Style: Times New Roman

Font Size: 12
Double Spaced Lines
1 Inch Margins

The major difference between the two formats are in the title
page, running head and block quoting guidelines.
 Important Links
The following links present different examples and
ways to do APA and MLA citation:

1 2 3 4
APA Citation MLA Citation Differences Online citation
Examples Examples between APA & generator
MLA