Research for Essay Writing in English

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• Understand the importance of citing and referencing in the academic writing process
• Locate the information necessary to correctly cite a source
• Effectively apply the appropriate citation styles

Citations are a way of giving credit when certain material and ideas in your work come from another source. 

It is important to cite the sources you use in your research for several reasons:

• To be a responsible scholar by giving credit to other researchers
• To avoid plagiarism by quoting words and ideas from other authors
• To allow your reader to track down the sources you've used
• To show your reader that you've done proper research

You will cite when you quote, paraphrase, summarize, use data, use images, use statistics, translate a text, etc. 

• DIRECT QUOTE: Using an author's exact words
   
• PARAPHRASE: Rewriting someone else's ideas in your own words and structure
   
• SUMMARY: Describing the key points of someone else's work in a condensed way, retaining only the essence

Citation management allows you to collect, organize, annotate, share and cite books, articles, videos, theses, book chapters, reports, government publications, Web sites as well as many other sources of information easily and effectively.

Citation management tools, also known as citation managers, bibliographic managers, or reference managers, also make it simpler to cite references within assignments, research papers, articles and theses, and to create bibliographies using an array of citation styles.

Learn more about how to use Zotero

Make sure to follow the citation style requested by your professor.