Purdue OWL has excellent online manuals for these commonly used citation styles:
(Simple) Answer: To give proper credit to others' work/writing/ideas.
Additional reasons we cite:
You need to include a citation whenever you quote, paraphrase, summarize, or otherwise refer to someone else's work.
Always give credit where credit is due, even for items in the public domain. For more information, visit our Copyright and Fair Use guide.
At Otis, we generally use MLA-style citations. However, there are other systems in existence, each with its own rules, format, and guidelines. Your professor may require you to use a different style; you should defer to their requirements.
The MLA system was created by the Modern Language Association of America (MLA). It is a set of guidelines for general formatting and citing research in writing. For this style, you must cite sources you have paraphrased, quoted, or otherwise used to write your research paper.
There are two components needed:
MLA citations include facts about the source. These facts are known as elements. The elements are arranged in a specific order depending on the type of material.
MLA Handbook, 9th ed. by
The new, ninth edition builds on the MLA's unique approach to documenting sources using a template of core elements--facts, common to most sources, like author, title, and publication date--that allows writers to cite any type of work, from books, e-books, and journal articles in databases to song lyrics, online images, social media posts, dissertations, and more. With this focus on source evaluation as the cornerstone of citation, MLA style promotes the skills of information and digital literacy so crucial today. The many new and updated chapters make this edition the comprehensive, go-to resource for writers of research papers, and anyone citing sources, from business writers, technical writers, and freelance writers and editors to student writers and the teachers and librarians working with them. Intended for a variety of classroom contexts--middle school, high school, and college courses in composition, communication, literature, language arts, film, media studies, digital humanities, and related fields--the ninth edition of the MLA Handbookoffers *New chapters on grammar, punctuation, capitalization, spelling, numbers, italics, abbreviations, and principles of inclusive language *Guidelines on setting up research papers in MLA format with updated advice on headings, lists, and title pages for group project *Revised, comprehensive, step-by-step instructions for creating a list of works cited in MLA format that are easier to learn and use than ever before *A new appendix with hundreds of example works-cited-list entries by publication format, including websites, YouTubevideos, interviews, and more *Detailed examples of how to find publication information for a variety of sources *Newly revised explanations of in-text citations, including comprehensive advice on how to cite multiple authors of a single work *Detailed guidance on footnotes and endnotes *Instructions on quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, and avoiding plagiarism *A sample essay in MLA format *Annotated bibliography examples *Numbered sections throughout for quick navigation *Advanced tips for professional writers and scholars
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