First Year Seminar (FYS)

When you use information from books, articles, or websites in your assignments, it's important to give credit to the original authors. This is called citing your sources, and it helps you avoid plagiarism while showing your readers where your ideas came from. 

Common Citation Styles:

• APA (American Psychological Association) - often used in the social sciences
• MLA (Modern Language Association) - commonly used in the humanities
• Chicago/Turabian - used in history and some other disciplines

Tip: Always check your assignment description or with your professor to see if there is a preferred citation style for your assignment. 

Citation Tools Online

Many online databases and library search tools offer automatic citations for each article or book. Look for buttons labeled "Cite," "Citation Tools," or "Export Citation." 

These are great starting points, but always double-check them for accuracy - sometimes capitalization, italics, or formatting may be slightly off. And that's a silly thing to lose points for. 

Citation Help from the Library

Need help figuring out how to cite something correctly? We've got you covered:

• The library offers citation style guides (APA, MLA, Chicago) at the reference desk on the second floor
• You can also ask a librarian for help with tricky citations or unusual sources
• Find guidance through our Citation Guides

Free Reference Managers

If you're working on a long paper, or just want to stay organized, try using a citation manager. These tools help you collect, organize, and format citations automatically. 

Popular free tools include: 

• Zotero - Easy to use, great for organizing sources and creating bibliographies
• Mendeley - Especially useful for science and PDF-heavy research

These tools can store copies of the resources you're using, keep track of your notes, and create in-text citations and full reference lists in seconds. Plus they're free!

Learn more on our guide for Citation Management Systems!