Research Guide for Technical Writing Essentials (355:202)

Why Cite?

1. Citations give proper credit to the authors of the words or ideas that you incorporated into your paper.
2. Citations allow readers of your work to locate your sources to learn more about the ideas that you include in your paper.
3. Citing your sources consistently and accurately helps you avoid plagiarism in your writing

If you have questions about citing, you can:
- Email Tom Glynn at glynn@rutgers.edu or call him at 848-932-6105.
- Or ask via our 24/7 Chat service.

A citation manager is software that lets you save all of your research in one place and formats your citations for you. In most databases, you can select and export your sources from your results list into a citation manager. Choose one that you like and use it for all of your library research. A citation manager will save you lots of time and effort.

The best citation managers have a plug-in for Word and a browser extension for Google Docs that will let you select a source that you've saved and will automatically add the citation as you're typing your assignment. The libraries have a page with more information about citation managers. RefWorks may be the easiest to use and is the default when you're exporting from many databases. For information about installing the RefWorks plug-in for Word or browser extension for Google Doc, click here.

There are many sites on the web that you can use to format APA citations. Whichever citation generator you use, remember that the citation it generates is only as good as the information you enter. Double-check every part of the citation, the author(s), title, date, etc.

Purdue OWL is a very useful site for APA and other citation styles. This is their citation generator for APA.

Most library resources, in your search result, will provide a citation of the sources that you found. In QuickSearch and many of the article databases, click on the citation iconto generate an APA citation for a source. If you don't see that citation icon, look for a similar icon or link or click on Help.

American Psychological Association Style, APA (7th edition), is most commonly used within the social and behavioral sciences. When citing with APA, briefly identify a source cited in the text of your paper in parentheses (in-text citation), and then provide a complete APA reference in a list of references at the end of the paper.

- Below are links to other helpful online resources for APA style:

APA Style Official Website

Test Your APA Style Knowledge Quiz

APA Style Common Reference Examples Guide

Examples of citing an article, a book, and a book chapter in APA 7th edition

- Examples of citing a webpage:

Taras, Z. (2024, May 30). Situational irony can be funny, tragic or even terrifying. howstuffworks. https:// entertainment.howstuffworks.com/arts/literature/situational-irony.htm

Aubrey, A. (2019, December 12) How to reduce food waste. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2019/12/10/786867315/how-to-reduce-food-waste