Citations are essential for avoiding various forms of plagiarism  and for upholding  Victoria High School’s Academic Code of Conduct. Information from books and digital sources must be cited, in addition to images (works of art, photographs, graphics, cartoons) and music/sound files if you did not create these sources yourself.

Citations can be formal or informal depending upon the project.  Formal citation is used for essays and reports and occurs in the form of a References/Works Cited page  as well as in-text citations.  However,  photographs, maps, clip art, music, and sound files incorporated into a poster or slideshow are often fine with informal citation conventions known as attribution.  Attribution credits the creator without the exacting requirements required in reference lists.  Even if you are using multimedia tagged as Creative Commons, it is ALWAYS good practice to provide attribution, even if it technically is not a requirement by the creator.

TOP TIPS:

• Create a working reference list by gathering the full citations of each source you use.
  Use the resources in the Digital Resource Hub; articles within this hub already include a ready-made citation in APA and MLA style.
• Use a citation generator for sources that do not provide built-in citation — for example, library books.  Use the information on the first front end papers to gather information about the copyright date, publisher, place of publication, title and author.
• Use a note-taking strategy that helps you paraphrase information and synthesize information from different sources
• If you are using images and sound clips/music, use sources that are copyright and royalty free linked here on our library web site.
• for more help and information, use the citation guides below or talk to your teacher-librarian Ms. Burleson

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Citation Generators			APA & MLA style
Citation Guides:				APA, MLA, and other citation styles