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SSI1-105: Imagining the American West

Citing Sources

Citations are key to participating in the scholarly community. They are a way to converse with other scholars, but they also:

  • Give fair credit to others for their ideas, creations, and expressions.
  • Back up claims and statements.
  • Provide a way for an interested reader to learn more.
  • Support academic integrity.

Consult Citation Tools to learn more about different citation styles.  Collins Library also supports two knowledge management tools:  RefWorks and Zotero.

MLA Style Guide

You should always should check with your professor to make sure which citation style to use. See the Collins Library quick MLA citation guide for commonly used types of sources, or consult the full book.

Sound Writing

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Sound Writing is the official writing handbook on campus, written by student writing advisors and specifically tailored to the needs of Puget Sound students and their faculty.

In addition to supporting the development of successful academic writing skills, Sound Writing also includes sections on research methods, writing in the disciplines, and more.

Sound Writing provides help with three citation styles: MLA, APA, and Chicago (notes & bibliography).

Current Edition: 2020

Get Help at CWL

The Center for Writing & Learning (CWL), located in Howarth 109, offers students opportunities to get help on all aspects of the writing process.  Services include:

  • Writing Advisors who are selected through a rigorous application process and who are specially trained to help students get started on a paper, organize their thoughts, or improve their editing skills.
  • Peer Tutors in a wide range of subjects who are nominated by professors in their disciplines and who are specially trained to help students individually or in small groups.
  • Language Partners who work with multilingual students to help them navigate the conventions and quirks of academic English writing.
  • Academic Consultants who are specially trained to help students improve their time management skills, organization, study skills, and test-taking strategies.

Additional Resources

There are several additional reliable and thorough guides to citation styles available online:

Which Sources & When to Cite

Which sources do we cite?

In academic work, we cite ALL sources that we use in any way.  Sources can include:

  • Texts, whether formally published (as in books or journal articles), informally published (as in webpages), or unpublished (as in notes or manuscripts)
  • Images (art, diagrams, or other graphics)
  • Music (compositions, recordings, performances)
  • Videos, films, live performances
  • Computer code or solved mathematical problems
  • Interviews or other important conversations
  • Architectural or engineering designs, whether formally patented or not

When do we cite our sources?

We cite our sources whenever we use them in any way or fashion:

  • As background to our argument
  • As an example of an argument we are agreeing with, arguing against, or something in between
  • When we borrow language
    • Word for word (a quotation)
    • Paraphrase
    • "Apt phrase"
  • When we use ideas or structures