Referencing, quoting, and citing
The three terms quoting, citing and referencing are quite related and sometimes may even be used interchangeably. However, for the purposes of clarity the main terms regarding the practice of acknowledging other people’s work are used in this section in the following way.
Quoting
Quoting is using the exact words of another writer or speaker. When you quote someone you can not change their words (even if there are mistakes: when there are mistakes there are conventions to indicate that the mistake is the other person’s, not your own). You must be careful to get every word as it stands in the text you are quoting from. When you quote short passages (sentences or phrases) you use quotation marks around the quoted words only.
Citing
Citing is putting the most important information about a source within the text you are writing, rather than at the end. In the above quotation the information in the brackets: (1994, p. 106) are the citation details. You have to provide these details when:
However, if you haven’t used the name of the author, then you must put the author’s(s) name in brackets also:
(Fisher and Adams, 1994, p.106)
Quoting
Quoting is using the exact words of another writer or speaker. When you quote someone you can not change their words (even if there are mistakes: when there are mistakes there are conventions to indicate that the mistake is the other person’s, not your own). You must be careful to get every word as it stands in the text you are quoting from. When you quote short passages (sentences or phrases) you use quotation marks around the quoted words only.
Citing
Citing is putting the most important information about a source within the text you are writing, rather than at the end. In the above quotation the information in the brackets: (1994, p. 106) are the citation details. You have to provide these details when:
- you quote, and, when
- you paraphrase
However, if you haven’t used the name of the author, then you must put the author’s(s) name in brackets also:
(Fisher and Adams, 1994, p.106)
Finding academic references
Follow the guidelines below to find and incorporate good references into your essays.