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Citations: Overview

Information and resources for creating citations

When citing, consider the following:

Information Has Value: Information possesses several dimensions of value, including as a commodity, as a means of education, as a means to influence, and as a means of negotiating and understanding the world. Legal and socioeconomic interests influence information production and dissemination.

Scholarship as Conversation: Communities of scholars, researchers, or professionals engage in sustained discourse with new insights and discoveries occurring over time as a result of varied perspectives and interpretations.

The Purpose and Importance of Citations

Citations serve an important purpose in academia for many reasons. Four of the most obvious and widely accepted reasons are the following:

  1. An acknowledgement of work essential to your research and academic growth.
  2. An indicator to others of your resource’s location in academia.
  3. As recognition of someone else’s ideas and thoughts.
  4. As a means to trace the history of knowledge and the evolution of ideas. 

As a Soka student, you work hard to brainstorm, research, write, and produce quality academic work. You would not want somebody else to steal your hard work and present it as their own. This is why it is necessary to cite your sources, so you are not the individual stealing someone else’s ideas and presenting them as your own. When in doubt, give the author a shout out – cite it! 

Get Research Help

Jennifer Tirrell (she/hers)

Instruction & Assessment Librarian

Kelly Wilson (she/they)

Reference & Instruction Librarian

Email: jtirrell@soka.edu

Office: IKE 201B

Tel: 949-480-4320

Schedule a Consultation

Email: kewilson@soka.edu

Office: IKE 201A

Tel: 949-269-5517

Schedule a Consultation

 

When You Need To Cite

There are four types of information you need to cite:

  1. Direct Quotations = When you are using the exact words that someone else said, place these in quotation marks.
    • Example: "The latest poll figures indicate that the SUA library is the best library in the world!" (Wilson 25).
  2. Paraphrasing & Summarizing = Explaining someone else's ideas in your own words. 
    • Example: Most of the students and faculty feel the SUA library is a great place to get information for their research (Wilson 25). 
  3. Data & Statistics = Any numerical figures or data created by someone else. 
    • Example: 75% of the Soka community rated the Ikeda Library as "excellent" in the 2020 annual survey (Wilson 25).
  4. Images = Any visual medium including photos, graphs, art, etc.
    • Example:

 several tables with four chairs each and desktop computers 

 

 

 

 

 

(Tirrell, 2021)