Quoting and citing sources

There are a wide variety of reasons to use literature from establishing a gap to supporting claims.

In some cases, the writer quotes verbatim – the exact words of a speaker or writer; sometimes this might be done, for example, because the original writer is well-known or respected. The writer might want the support of the original author or to hide behind the original author.

No source is usually needed for claims that are very general and widely accepted.

Readers do expect sources to be given for ideas that were developed by others and for findings or data that are the result of other people’s research.

Sources may be cited in one of two ways and these are illustrated below.

Before you continue, consider this question.

Now click here to find out what parenthetical citations are.