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English 102 (Cain): Citing Sources

Library Introduction

You Quote It, You Cite It!

Student at Computer

You Quote It, You Cite It! is Las Positas Library's adaptation of the Acadia University Library's tutorial on avoiding plagiarism.  Click here to take the tutorial.

Chabot MLA Handout

You will be given a citation handout in class. However, you can access the online version here. Or you can come in and ask the reference librarian for a hard copy of the handbooks.

Generate Citations w/in Library Databases

Many library databases and article collections, plus many electronic books, will create citations for whichever article or chapter you are viewing. Tip: Make sure you double-check the citation is correct.

Look for a "Cite This" or "Citation" button on the record for the article or chapter you are viewing. Not all databases have this feature (LexisNexis does not).

1. Run a search in the library's EbscoHost, ProQuest, or CQ Researcher databases.
2. From the list of results, click the title for an article that looks interesting.
3. Look for a "Cite This" button or icon.
4. You’ll see a collection of references for this article in different formats. Find the format you need, for example, APA or Chicago or MLA. Copy the citation and paste it into a list of potential citations.

Citation Generators

You can also find websites which will create a citation after you plug in the necessary information (author, title, web address or publisher, etc). Some versions of Microsoft Word also include a citation generator.

NCSU Library (my favorite!)

Son of Citation Machine