16 What Needs a Source In-text Citation

When students are asked this question, they generally answer: “What you didn’t write.” However, many times, this becomes an issue because after reading many sources, students find it hard to distinguish what is theirs and what is directly from the source.

Here are a couple of rules of thumb to decide when you need to credit a source:

• sentences that contains numerical information of any kind such as ranges, percentages, weights, monetary amounts, addresses, etc.
• any direct quote which is a word by word duplication of what was in the source
• summaries which are the main idea of a theory, idea, or plan that you did not come up with
• close paraphrases – if you only replace a few words from the source with your own
• specific details that are not widely known
• tables or figures that you did not develop on your own

Because as you go along in your research it becomes harder to distinguish what is yours and what is in the source, it’s a good idea to write the quotes, summaries, and paraphrases on note cards with at least the title of the work so that when you use it, you know which source it came from.  It’s also easier to write this information on a notecard than rifling through a stack of papers or articles!