Suggestions on How to Cite Your Research Paper

Writing a research paper can be a challenging task to undertake. Being able to understand how to properly cite in your work is also an essential part to your success but is a step that is often not given the time and attention that it needs. Fortunately, there are many ways of handling this part of your project so that it doesn’t take up more time than necessary out of your already packed schedule.

Understanding the Basics


The first step to properly citing your work is to understand what you are doing. As you are writing your research paper, you will come across a wide variety of sources that will prove useful to you. By citing the work that you use as you use it in your paper, you are giving readers information as to where you gathered your evidence from. You are also ensuring that you will not have to face any plagiarism issues as you will have properly cited all of the information you used which was not your own.

The kind of sources that you use in your final project are entirely up to you. It’s important that you keep track of each and every reference that you make, however, as this is crucial to ensuring your success. It’s best to keep an ongoing list so that you can more easily keep track of it all. If you do this as you go through your project, you’ll find that citing everything will be much simpler at the end.

Properly Citing in your Paper

Depending on the format in which you are operating, there are a couple of different ways to cite work in your paper. Here are the two main styles and how to cite your sources within each one.

MLA Format

Within this format, it is common to use parenthetical citation. Put simply, you need to place the information regarding your source in parenthesis after the relevant quote or paraphrase used. It is important to note that the source information required depends on the kind of source you are dealing with, such as DVD’s or printed work.

APA Format

When working in the APA format, you need to use what’s known as the author-date method. This is referring to the use of the author’s last name and the year of the publication within parenthesis next to the source. This needs to appear in the text itself and then the full source needs to be referenced within the works cited page at the end of your project.

It’s important to note that these are very general guidelines and that there are many more details that you should read up on for further reference. Be sure to look closer at this site for further assistance should you face any difficulties with this.


In conclusion, while citing your sources within your research paper may appear to be a bit overwhelming at first, as long as you keep track of your sources as you go, and you work on this in conjunction with your works cited page, you should have no problems completing your project successfully.