How to Do In-Text Citations in a Research Paper

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How to Do In-Text Citations in a Research Paper
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Introduction

• Proper in-text citations within a research or
  term paper can make the difference between a
  passing and failing grade, as failure to provide
  proper in-text citations can lead to a charge of
  plagiarism.

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Step 1

• Use an in-text citation whenever you are
  discussing an idea that is not your own. Any
  information, including images, statistics, data,
  ideas, quotes or paraphrases, that you use from
  another source must be cited within the text of
  your paper

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Step 2

• Place the in-text citation within the text of
  your paper after the information that the
  citation refers to. In most cases the citation
  will go at the end of the sentence, but in some
  cases where you are discussing a concept in more
  than one sentence, you will put the citation
  after a set of sentences that are all discussing
  the same idea or concept.
• Additionally, sometimes you will have more than
  one idea within a sentence, and each idea will
  come from a separate source. When this is the
  case, you will have multiple in-text citations
  within the sentence.

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Step 3

• Review the guidelines of the particular type of
  writing style that you have been requested to use
  in writing your paper to determine the proper
  format for your in-text citations. Some of the
  most common citation methods include APA, MLA and
  Chicago.
• An example of an APA in-text citation would look
  like this Jones and Jones (2007) discovered the
  principle of excitation. Alternatively, it may
  look like this Researchers have recently
  discovered the principle of excitation (Jones
  Jones, 2007).

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Step 4

• Ensure that each in-text citation matches up with
  a full citation placed in your reference list,
  which may be termed a bibliography or works cited
  list.
• This allows a reader to look at a citation within
  the text of your paper and then refer to the
  reference list to find the full details of the
  citation so that she can investigate the topic
  further on her own.