Save and Organize your Sources

When you have a research project, set up a system for keeping track of your resources and any other research information:

• Sign in to the PSU Library catalog and use the pin icon  to save your library resources in My Favorites;
• Create a folder in your pdx.edu email to save articles, citations, and drafts of your assignment;
• Save all of your sources to the same place, such as your PSU H: drive;
• Create a Google Doc with your notes and citation information.

If you need assistance with citations, PSU Library's Cite Your Sources guide offers more instruction on citation, plagiarism, and citation generators.

Quote & Paraphrase

When you use someone else's research or information, you will need to paraphrase or quote it. Quoting and paraphrasing add evidence to your research, and give credit where credit is due:

• Quotation - When you use the exact words from the source, put quotation marks around the words that are not your own and cite it.
• Paraphrasing - When you use ideas from another source in your own words, then you need to cite where the idea or facts came from.

Simply changing a few words from the original source is plagiarism. If you cannot state an idea in your own words, you should quote the original source. 

Ideally, papers will contain a good balance of direct quotations, paraphrasing, and your own thoughts. Use quotes and paraphrasing to support your own ideas, rather than relying solely on another's work.

Always properly cite an author's original idea whether you have directly quoted or paraphrased it. If you have questions about how to cite properly in a citation style (APA, MLA, or Chicago), check out the PSU Library Citation Guide.

The PSU Writing Center

The PSU Writing Center provides helpful guidance on quoting and paraphrasing. If you have any questions about quoting or paraphrasing, schedule an appointment with the Writing Center. The Writing Center will help you at any point in the writing process.

Use a Citation Generator

With a citation generator, you can produce a citation in your selected format that you can copy and paste into your paper. The Library catalog, as well as many of the library databases, has a built in citation generator, which creates a citation for the resource in various citation styles.

Select  the title of the resource in the Library catalog, then click on the Citation link to generate citations in four different styles: APA (6^th edition), Chicago/Turabian (16^th Edition), Harvard 1, and MLA (8th edition).

In Ebsco-host databases, select the Cite link on the right hand column of the web page. This link generates a citation for several citation styles.

Google Scholar also has a built-in citation generator. Select the quotation marks underneath the record to generate a citation for several citation styles.

Make sure to check your generated citations at the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL). ​

Here is the video, Using Automatic Citation Generators, to review these three citation generators:

Cite Sources in MLA

MLA format is commonly used in the arts and humanities. The Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) offers a useful and comprehensive guide to citing different types of sources in MLA format. 

PSU Library's Cite Your Sources guide offers more instruction on citation, plagiarism, and citation generators. 

Cite Sources in the Chicago Style

Chicago format is typically used in history and some humanities disciplines. There are two types of Chicago format:

• The author-date style uses parenthetical citations within the paper;
• The note-bibliography (NB) style uses footnotes or endnotes.

Both styles are explained in detail in the Chicago Manual of Style Online.

Cite Sources in APA

APA format is commonly used in the social sciences. The Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) offers a useful and comprehensive guide to citing different types of sources in APA format.

PSU Library's Cite Your Sources guide offers more instruction on citation, plagiarism, and citation generators. 

Save and Organize your Sources

For your research project, set up a simple  system for keeping track of your resources and any other research information:

• Sign in to the PSU Library catalog and use the pin icon  to save your library resources in My Favorites;
• Create a folder in your pdx.edu email to save articles, citations, and drafts of your assignment;
• Save all of your sources to the same place, such as your PSU H: drive;
• Create a Google Doc with your notes and citation information.

If you need assistance with citations, PSU Library's Cite Your Sources guide offers more instruction on citation, plagiarism, and citation generators.