Citing Your Sources

Citing Your Sources - Basics

When you're researching and taking notes, make sure the first thing you do is record the source you're taking notes from. This will make your life easier later! At the end of your project/paper/presentation, you'll need to compile all your sources into a Bibliography page.

Each source = one entry in your bibliography

For each source, you need to record:

  • title and author

  • publisher

  • date and place of publication

  • date web-based information was accessed

Library databases such as Worldbook Online, Encyclopedia Britannica and Gale Databases all feature ready-made bibliography entries for all articles. Just copy and paste! 

Generally speaking - for high school students, there are two "styles” for citing your sources that you may be asked to use or come across in your studies:

APA: American Psychology Association

MLA 8th Edition: Modern Language Association

Typically - APA is most often used in Psychology and Science courses; MLA 8 is most often used in English and Social Studies courses.

Check out Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) for more information about formatting your bibliography. Your bibliography page is called a Reference List in APA or a Works Cited Page in MLA 8.

To Build Your Bibliography from Scratch

Print as a PDF or make a copy of the Google Doc version to type directly into it, using your Learn68 or a personal Gmail account.

 
 
 
 
 

Heather Lyons (Teacher-Librarian, Dover Bay) created these fill-in-the-blank forms to help you build your bibliography in MLA 8 or APA, depending on your course & teachers’ preference. Thank you, Ms. Lyons for sharing!

 

Quick Links - Purdue Online Writing Lab

APA Formatting & Style Guide

MLA 8th Edition Formatting & Style Guide

Other Helpful Links

Citation Generator/Management Tools

EasyBib to generate citations/references for websites, books, videos/films, journals & more.

Purdue OWL - learn the ins and outs of quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing & avoiding plagiarism.

Citation Builder - a free tool to build citations in MLA or APA. 

Zotero - a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite and share your research sources