When you write a paper or give a presentation, it's important for your audience to know the sources you used; they may want to learn more about the topic or investigate deeper into what you said. You therefore need to provide citations that describe your sources. Your citations must be clear and easy to understand, and should provide all the information necessary to a reader. There are several citation systems, each one is adapted to the needs of the branch of learning that uses it.
There are three citation systems in common use at Butte College, and we've written handy guides for you to use:
These styles govern not only the format of citations, but of every aspect of a written document, such as margins, spacing, what goes on the title page, and so on -- though the citations are the tricky part!
Citations are now easier than ever, because the library catalog and nearly all our databases will produce citations for you. When you find a book or article you want to use, look around the screen for a button that says "Cite" or that shows quotation marks -- usually at the right or the top of the screen. You will get a choice of citation styles and the database will produce it for you! It's important to make sure that the information is correct and complete, but this function takes most of the difficulty out of writing citations.
There are also online services that will collect citations and organize them for you. The best we have found so far is MyBib, which is free and lets you set up a folder for each project. Just select what kind of a resource it is (book, article, video...) and put in the title and as much information as you have. MyBib will usually be able to come up with the rest, although as always it's important to check for correctness.
For further information, we recommend perusing the Purdue OWL website or checking out the handbooks for each style:
When you write a paper or give a presentation, it's important for your audience to know the sources you used; they may want to learn more about the topic or investigate deeper into what you said. You therefore need to provide citations that describe your sources. Your citations must be clear and easy to understand, and should provide all the information necessary to a reader. There are several citation systems, each one is adapted to the needs of the branch of learning that uses it.
There are three citation systems in common use at Butte College, and we've written handy guides for you to use:
These styles govern not only the format of citations, but of every aspect of a written document, such as margins, spacing, what goes on the title page, and so on -- though the citations are the tricky part!
Citations are now easier than ever, because the library catalog and nearly all our databases will produce citations for you. When you find a bo
ok or article you want to use, look around the screen for a button that says "Cite" or that shows quotation marks -- usually at the right or the top of the screen. You will get a choice of citation styles and the database will produce it for you! It's important to make sure that the information is correct and complete, but this function takes most of the difficulty out of writing citations.
There are also online services that will collect citations and organize them for you. The best we have found so far is MyBib, which is free and lets
you set up a folder for each project. Just select what kind of a resource it is (book, article, video...) and put in the title and as much information as you have. MyBib will usually be able to come up with the rest, although as always it's important to check for correctness.
For further information, we recommend perusing the Purdue OWL website or checking out the handbooks for each style: