Research Guides: Using Sources Responsibly & Avoiding Plagiarism: Citing Sources

Check with your instructor to verify which style you should use.

MLA style (from the Modern Language Association)
APA style (from the American Psychological Association)

In both styles, you cite your sources twice—once in the text of the paper (in-text citation) and again at the end (on the Works Cited or References pages).

MCC Library Quick Guide to APA & MLA Citation Styles
Examples of commonly cited resources and a comparison of MLA and APA (6 page pdf).

Citation: A (Very) Brief Introduction

NoodleTools

NoodleTools is a citation management program that can help you manage your citations, organize your notes, and create your Works Cited or References page. Sign in to NoodleTools or check out the NoodleTools Help Desk for more information. To sign in to NoodleTools use your student email address and password. Your email address is your EasyLogin username followed by @students.ccsnh.edu.

Introduction to NoodleTools
A step-by-step guide to using NoodleTools.

Citation is how you give credit to the people whose words, ideas or images you have used in your work. By citing sources, you create a trail for others from your writing to your sources.

Image source: National Park Service www.nps.gov/natt/index.htm

Good News: Ready-made Citations

Most of the MCC Library's online databases, as well as its eBook collections, provide you with ready-made citations (MLA or APA). Cut and paste them into your document. Check citation formatting using the resources on this page, and add in-text citations, too.

Librarians and tutors in the MCC Learning Commons can help you create citations for sources that you find elsewhere and can review your citations before you submit your work.

Librarians can even help you relocate an article for which you have incomplete information.

Excelsior Online Writing Lab includes a variety of writing and citation information, including APA and MLA style guides.

How To Make a Hanging Indent

Both MLA and APA require a hanging indent in your citation list (Works Cited or References). With a hanging indent, only the first line of a citation goes all the way to the left margin. every additional line is indented by 0.5 inches. To do this in MS Word,

On a PC, select your text and hit Ctrl T or select your text, right click your mouse, choose Paragraph/Indentation then Special:Hanging

On a Mac, select your text and look under the Format menu for Paragraph then Indents and Spacing.

This video from the Social Work Library at Boston College shows how to do this.

In Google Docs, select your text, then go to Format > Align & indent > Indentation options. In the Indentation options menu, under Special, select Hanging. Click Apply.