Research Steps for Beginners

It is important to cite the sources used in your research paper. When you use the words or ideas of another person in your paper, you need to give credit to that person. Using the words or ideas of another person without giving them credit is considered plagiarism, and breaks the Odessa College Student Code of Conduct. To learn more about plagiarism, watch our tutorial. 

There are three main citation styles that scholars use for citing sources. 

American Psychological Association (APA)

Modern Language Association (MLA)

Chicago/Turabian 

Always check the assignment instructions for what citation style your professor wants you to use.  

Here are some citation sources available to use: 

APA Style and Grammar Guidelines 

MLA Style Center 

Chicago/Turabian Citation Quick Guide

The Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) has guides for general writing and citation guides for APA, MLA, and Chicago styles. 

Citation Generators are tools that take the source information data and generate a citation using the style you need.

When using a citation generator be sure to:

• use credible and accurate sources (generators do not evaluate sources)
• enter the correct data
• select the correct style
• double check the result against a style guide reference

Citation Machine 

EasyBib

Cite This For Me