NARRATOR: Your professor asked you to cite your sources. What does that mean? What is a citation? And why does this even matter? According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a citation is "a quotation from or reference to a book, paper, or author, especially in a scholarly work." See what I did there? I used a quote and cited the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as a source. 

Say our paper is about making the perfect dessert, and we've been told about this great article in a book about pies and given this information. What does it mean? Can we tell which is the title of the book? However, if the researcher had put the information in a particular order and format, following rules that we also knew, we could easily tell which of these is the book title. 

Citations matter because including them ensures that we are giving credit to the author, avoiding plagiarism. And they also allow the reader to quickly understand the resource information so they can find it and read it, too. The formatting and exact order may be slightly different depending on the citation style and the item you are citing. However, the general idea is the same. Let's start off by plugging this information into the MLA format. 

The author is listed first and last name, then first name. Are you setting a chapter in the book? If so, include that here, making sure to add quotation marks to the chapter's title. The title of the book is italicized. Next comes the name of the publisher, followed by the publication date, and finally, the page numbers that were used for our research. 

When citing, pay especially close attention to all the commas and periods that separate each section. These are critical in separating pieces of information to make the citation readable. Some parts end with a period. Others end with a comma. Websites such as OWL at Purdue offer helpful templates on how to cite in various styles and for various types of information, such as books, articles, websites, images, interviews, and more. You can also find all this information on the Cypress College Library Citation Help Guide, or ask a librarian. We're here to help.