Citing your sources is an important part of the scholarly writing process. Citations include the key elements that allow your sources to be identified and located - author, title, date, etc. The actual format of the citation depends on the resource type as well as the documentation style you are using.

There are several reasons to cite:

• Give proper credit to the ideas, words, and works of others you use in your research
• Allow readers to find your sources - so they can determine if they are reliable, better evaluate your argument, and locate additional information
• Avoid plagiarism

• After using a source, put a superscript number at the end of your sentence:

Marius notes that "history and writing are inseparable."³

• Cite the source in a correspondingly numbered note at the end of the page (footnote) or at the end of your paper (endnote):

3. Richard Marius. A Short Guide to Writing about History, 3rd ed. (New York: Longman, 1999), 5.

• If you use this source again, subsequent notes are shorter:

9. Marius, 105.

• In your bibliography, list the source alphabetically according to the author's last name:

Marius, Richard. A Short Guide to Writing about History, 3rd ed. New York: Longman, 1999.

Be aware of small differences across similar formats. For example:

• Book citations vary slightly for edited collections, multiple authors, translations, or new editions.
• Articles have subtle differences if they are newspapers, weekly magazines, or scholarly journals.