Workshop from Fall 2024: This basic walkthrough will help you get started using the free Zotero citation management software to gather, organize, and format your citations.
What does it mean to "cite" your sources?
When you do research for a paper or a project, you gather information from outside sources--books, magazines, journals, reports, and websites--that were written or produced by others.
When you sit down to write your paper or create your project, you have an ethical and legal obligation not to use others' words or ideas without giving them credit.
Citing is the way you give others credit for their work, and different disciplines have different "styles" of citing their sources.
"When you cite a source, you show how your voice enters into an intellectual conversation, and you demonstrate your link to the community within which you work. Working with sources can inspire your own ideas and enrich them, and your citation of these sources is the visible trace of that debt." (Yale Writing Center)
Important: Your professor will tell you which citation style to use.
These websites provide information and instructions for citing sources in various styles.