Giving Credit to your Sources

Citations are used to acknowledge which parts of a paper reference particular sources. Citations are needed to indicate paraphrasing, direct quotations, showing that an idea is not your own, or that information was obtained from another source other than yourself. If you do not cite your sources, you are plagiarizing, which is a serious offence (see Plagiarism). See SFU's Library Page on Plagiarism for more information on plagiarism and to complete a tutorial to test your expertise on plagiarism.

There are three different styles of citation: MLA, APA and Chicago.

• MLA: MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (Modern Language Association of America), 6th ed., 2003
• APA: Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th ed., 2001
• Chicago: The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed., 2003

To try and simplify the process of citation for students we have developed concise 'student friendly' guides for each of the styles. Click on the links below to see these guides. For complete citation information check out the guides produced by the SFU Library, as well as the websites listed which are dedicated to the various styles.


Student Friendly Citation Guides                         SFU Library Citation Guides                                       Other Links
                   MLA                                                                               MLA                                               Modern Language Association
                   APA                                                                                APA                                                          APA Style.org
               Chicago                                                                         Chicago                                           Chicago Manual of Style Online