Term paper writing tips: citing sources

Writing a term paper involves a variety of steps to be taken in order to complete a paper that is satisfactory and well-written. Since this paper is vital to your overall class grade it is important that you familiarize yourself with the proper structuring needed along with the information that needs to be included. Any omission of this information could be detrimental in your final score. Among the information that must be included inside of your term paper are the sources that you have used to gather the information for the report.

What is Citing Sources?

Citing sources is the process of indicating where information was retrieved from. Only credible sources should be cited in your paper. Otherwise you risk people bot trusting the information that has been provided.

There are a few different ways that you can cite the information that is used when writing the term paper. Before you begin writing your paper it is important to understan

d the instructions that you have been given for the paper, and that you follow them exactly as you should.

More often than not it is the AP standard of writing and citing sources that you will use in the creation of your paper. In that case the following format should be used in your paper:

  • Last name, published year
  • If there are several different authors of a publication you should start with the last names published, followed by the year of publication.

  • The Title
  • If there is no author name to include, start with the title and follow with the year of publication.

  • Specific Quotes
  • AP guidelines strongly recommend that you also include the page number when you are citing a specific piece of information or a quote.

Any citation that you use should be placed at the end of the sentence, but it should be added before the period. If the author’s name has already been used in the text it does not need to be repeated in the citation. Any time that you are required to write a term paper, including citations is something that must be done. Without the citations your paper is not truly complete, and you can be sure that the marks and score you want to earn are far from attainable at that point. Do not make this mistake, and follow the tips and information above to help you with the proper formatting of your citations.

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