When using ideas presented in other sources, it is important to credit authors -- individuals or organizations. Crediting sources is expected in academic and professional writing.
Three ways to present information from sources are:
- Paraphrasing: rewording ideas in your own words
- Quoting directly: using the source's exact words.
- Summarizing: restating the main ideas of a text in as few words as possible.
- In-text citations always follow summaries and are placed near paraphrased ideas and direct quotations.
- Reference lists of all sources cited in the paper appear in a list at the end of the paper.