When a fact is generally accepted or easily observable, you do not need a citation. For example, “smoking may be bad for your health” or “most people use cell phones” are both generally accepted and easily observable. Be careful, however; if you venture into more specific knowledge, you should cite a source.
Information could include ideas, facts, phrases, or anything else. This means that you need to include references for all information, even if it is from something which you do not consider 'academic', such as an unregulated website.
You should provide an in-text citation whenever you quote, paraphrase or summarize research and ideas that are not your own. This may include theories, best practice guidelines, and of course, statistics. You should also cite whenever you present a fact that is not common knowledge.
Instead, when paraphrasing a key point in more than one sentence within a paragraph, cite the source in the first sentence in which it is relevant and do not repeat the citation in subsequent sentences as long as the source remains clear and unchanged.
Important to remember: You DO NOT need to add an in-text citation after EVERY sentence of your paragraph.
Solution: Use a lead-in at the beginning of your paragraph. Basically, introduce the source you are summarizing or paraphrasing at the beginning of the paragraph. Then, refer back to the source when needed to ensure your reader understands you are still using the same source.
Citations briefly identify the source of borrowed information, quotes, and figures in the text. The citation must be placed at the beginning, middle or end of the borrowed information. It must be clear what information is borrowed and where it comes from, including page references whenever possible.
Appropriate level of citation
Instead, when paraphrasing a key point in more than one sentence within a paragraph, cite the source in the first sentence in which it is relevant and do not repeat the citation in subsequent sentences as long as the source remains clear and unchanged.
Generally, there is no limit on the number of times you can cite the same author in an assignment. The assignment brief or task sheet usually outlines what is required and often indicates a minimum number and the types of scholarly resources (journal articles, books, etc.) you need to reference.
Including just one citation at the end of a paragraph is not sufficient unless the last sentence is the only information in the paragraph that came from the cited source. Cite sources often and correctly throughout a paragraph in order to avoid unintentional plagiarism.
APA citation basics
When using APA format, follow the author-date method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the year of publication for the source should appear in the text, for example, (Jones, 1998), and a complete reference should appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.
The APA citation style has two major elements for in-text citation: the author and the date. Also, they come in two forms: parenthetical and narrative (APA, 2019). For parenthetical citations, both author and date appear separated by a comma. A parenthetical citation may appear within or at the end of a sentence.
If what you are incorporating into your writing is simply common knowledge, you will not need to cite the source of this information. However, if the information you are incorporating into your writing is more complex or "insider" knowledge, then you will need to cite current, credible sources that prove your position.
To show your reader you've done proper research by listing sources you used to get your information. To be a responsible scholar by giving credit to other researchers and acknowledging their ideas. To avoid plagiarism by quoting words and ideas used by other authors.
When citing the work of the same author multiple times in one paragraph, you do not need to reference the author at the end of each sentence. That would look clunky and make your writing stilted. Instead, introduce the author with a full in-text citation at the beginning of the paragraph and then, again, at the end.
If you are citing them in-text more than once, and you are referring to the same source each time, then you can simply reuse that same in-text reference with a single entry on your references page at the end. If you are citing the same author, but from different sources, you may have to take a different approach.
Yes, you can abbreviate the subsequent citations of the source. If the subsequent citation is in the footnote immediately following the full citation, you can use 'ibid'. Used alone, 'ibid' means 'in the very same place' – in other words, the same source and the same page or paragraph as the preceding full citation.
Can I turn in a paper without citing all sources? No.
No. The citation should appear only after the final sentence of the paraphrase. If, however, it will be unclear to your reader where your source's idea begins, include the author of the source in your prose rather than in a parenthetical citation.
For a short paper, 10 citations may be considered as a lot. For a review paper, 50 citations are not a lot. Whether it is bad or not depends on the nature, type and length of the paper.
If you cite a source only in the end list of sources, then you have not cited it fully and correctly, as you have not indicated where in the body of your assignment the information from that source has been used. In addition to a citation, quotation marks are required when you are citing someone else's words.
A good rule of thumb is to use sources published in the past 10 years for research in the arts, humanities, literature, history, etc.
Follow the Golden Rule of Citation: Cite whenever you use another person's information, research, words, or ideas directly.