All about Citations: Home

Why do we cite sources?

• Citing your sources of information helps the reader verify the origin of your information, and it shows evidence of your research.
• The authenticity of your information is established by citing and it enables your readers to locate your sources. 
• Not citing appropriately can get you accused of Plagiarism and is a serious academic issue.

A note to students about citation style guidelines: Many citation format guidelines are open to interpretation. For this reason your instructor is the final authority of the subject of citation for any given assignment.

An annotated bibliography is a list of citations for various books, articles, and other sources on a topic. The annotated bibliography looks like a Works Cited page but includes an annotation after each source cited. An annotation is a short summary and/or critical evaluation of a source. Annotated bibliographies can be part of a larger research project, or can be a stand-alone report in itself.

Types of Annotations

•  A summary annotation describes the source by answering the following questions: who wrote the document, what the document discusses, when and where was the document written, why was the document produced, and how was it provided to the public. The focus is on description. 
•  An evaluative annotation includes a summary as listed above but also critically assesses the work for accuracy, relevance, and quality. Evaluative annotations can help you learn about your topic, develop a thesis statement, decide if a specific source will be useful for your assignment, and determine if there is enough valid information available to complete your project. The focus is on description and evaluation.

Some important things to note:

• Each annotation should be one paragraph, between three to six sentences long (about 150- 200 words).
• Start with the same format as a regular Works Cited list. Make sure to your citations are written in the style of your assignment's citation style (e.g., MLA, APA, Chicago).
• All lines should be double-spaced. Do not add an extra line between the citations.
• If your list of citations is especially long, you can organize it by topic.
• Try to be objective, and give explanations if you state any opinions.
• Use the third person (e.g., he, she, the author) instead of the first person (e.g., I, my, me)

What to Include in Annotations:

• After the bibliographical information, begin to discuss the source. Begin with a general summary of the source. Describe the key sections of the text and their corresponding main points. Try to avoid focusing on details; a summary covers the essential points and typically does not include quoted material.
• Evaluate the source’s credibility or relevance. Is the author an expert on the topic? How do you know? Is the source peer-reviewed or otherwise credible in nature? How do you know? What makes this source a good one to use?
• Discuss how you plan to integrate the source in your paper. Do you need to point out similarities or differences with other sources in the annotated bibliography? How does it support (or refute) your intended thesis?

Sample annotated bibliographies:

Annotated Bibliography Samples from Purdue OWL

Annotated Bibliography Samples from University of Akron

So how do you cite sources? You can use online or physical resources to help you create citations, but most databases also offer basic citation resources. Remember to always double-check any citations created by a computer or database. They can and do make mistakes!

If you already have a citation from a bibliography or other source, you have everything you need to find the book, book chapter, or article if the library owns it!

1. Identify whether you have a book or a journal article citation:
   • For APA citations, a book citation includes the name of the publisher: Stoneman, R. (2008). Alexander the Great: A life in legend. Yale University Press. In this example, the publisher is Yale University Press (shown in red).
   • A chapter or article within a book may look similar to an article citation, but it will include a publisher and will say that the article is "in" a book: Armstrong, D. (2019). Malory and character. In M. G. Leitch & C. J. Rushton (Eds.), A new companion to Malory (pp. 144-163). D. S. Brewer. Here "In" and the publisher, D. S. Brewer, are highlighted in red. 
   • An article citation, there will be no publisher listed, and there will be a volume and issue number for the journal: Scruton, R. (1996). The eclipse of listening. The New Criterion, 15(3), 5–13.
2. Once you identify what type of citation you have, then identify the information you need to find it. 
   • For a book citation, identify the title of the book. 
     Example citation 1: Stoneman, R. (2008). Alexander the Great: A life in legend. Yale University Press.
     In the example above, Alexander the Great: A life in legend is the title of the book.
     Example citation 2: Armstrong, D. (2019). Malory and character. In M. G. Leitch & C. J. Rushton (Eds.), A new companion to Malory (pp. 144-163). D. S. Brewer.
     In the example above, A new companion to Malory is the title of the book. Malory and character is the title of the chapter or article within the book.
   • For a journal citation, identify the title of the journal or the title of the article.
     Example citation: Scruton, R. (1996). The eclipse of listening. The New Criterion, 15(3), 5–13.
     In the example above, The New Criterion is the title of the journal. The eclipse of listening is the article title.
3. Find your material:
   • Book: Use the Hiram College Library catalog to see whether we own the book. If we do not, you can check the OhioLINK catalog to see if they own it. If you are looking for a portion of the book as in Example 2, then check the page numbers in the citation. Use them to locate the chapter or article within the book (in this case, pages 144-163).
   • Journal Article by Journal Title: 
     Use the Hiram College "Finding Journals" search to find journals by title. Then use the year, volume, and page number to narrow down your search.
     Remember to save the link to the article by using a "Permalink."
   • Journal Article by Article Title:
     Use OneSource to search for articles by article title. 
     Verify that the information is correct, and view the article if it is available, or request it via Interlibrary Loan if it is not. 
     Remember to save the link to the article by using a "Permalink."

Need a little more practice identifying the parts of a citation? The Virginia Tech University Libraries Citation Tutorial can help!

Watch this video to review the ways to locate a journal article when you have a citation!