Why Citing Sources is Important
APA Citations Explained
Highline College Library's Guide to Citing Sources in APA Format

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Why Citing Sources is Important

In college, we know that we must cite our sources so we don't plagiarize, which is considered a form of cheating and goes against the Academic Honesty Policy. But there's actually much more to citing than that.

Citations give credit to the person whose ideas or words we are using. Whenever we use sources such as books, journals, web sites, or images in our research, we must give credit to the original author by citing the source.
Citations also add strength and authority to our work. By citing our sources we are placing our work in a specific context to show where the sources “fit” within the larger conversation.
Citations also give our readers the information they need to find that source again, providing an important guide to our research and writing process.

Although many people think citing sources is only needed in school papers, projects, and presentations, it is possible that we may have future jobs which require research. We may need to research a topic for a boss and provide a presentation they can use at an upcoming meeting. Or we may have a job that requires us to do research and publish our results. Proper citations are necessary to provide our boss or readers with information about which resources we used and where they can find them, if needed.

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All information on this page is adapted from the following source except where otherwise noted.

"Citing Your Sources: The Basics Canvas Module" by Seattle Central College Library (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

APA Citations Explained

When we're writing a paper, giving a speech, or preparing a presentation, we must make it clear what information is our own ideas and what information comes from other sources. We use citations for this purpose.

There are two places citations are used: in the text of the paper or presentation, and in a References page at then end of the paper or presentation. (Note: In a speech, we verbally state our source in brief format, and then we include a References list with the outline submitted to the instructor.)

The in-text citation (also called a parenthetical citation) is a short visual cue in the paper or presentation that lets the reader know they will find a fuller citation in the References page at the end. The in-text citation includes the author(s) and the year the information was produced. If we use a direct quotation, we also include the page number(s) if page numbers are available. (Web pages do not have page numbers so we can either not include a page number at all or use a paragraph number.)

The longer citation in the References page is called a bibliographic citation and it tells us all of the necessary information to find that source, should we want to. Bibliographic citations in APA style always start with an author's (or creator's) last name, unless there is no author and then the citation starts with the title of the work we're citing. The References page goes at the end of our research paper, project, or presentation, and it includes a detailed list of sources we used in our paper.

The example below shows what an APA in-text citation looks like, and what the corresponding References page bibliographic citation looks like. Notice that the in-text citation must include the same author information as the longer bibliographic citation in the References list so that our reader can easily find it.

Image of APA in-text citation and References

"PSYC 220: Costa, P.: Citing in APA style" by Tacoma Community College Library is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

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Highline College Library's Guide to Citing Sources in APA Format

The Highline College Library provides APA citation information online so it's available whenever needed.

There are many other places where we can find APA citation and formatting information. Here are two examples:

APA Formatting and Style Guide from the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University
APA Style Web Site

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