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Communication in Media Organizations: MSP 4696

Research help for the course, MSP 4696: Communication in Media Organizations.

Why Cite?

index card with citation notes

Why cite your sources? Citing the sources you use helps to:

  • support your ideas,
  • validate your argument,
  • give credit to the originator of the idea,
  • lead readers to additional information about your topic; 
  • and, help prevent plagiarism.

Index Card by Reeding Lessons, February 3, 2007 (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

APA Style

APA Style Handbook coverIn Social Science disciplines, the APA style is a set of standards for writing and documentation to help writers present their ideas in a clear, concise, and inclusive manner.

These standards are laid out in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, the official source for APA Style. As of 2020, the Publication Manual is in its 7th edition.

Find copies of the 7th edition at the Libraries. The APA Style website also offers: 

Tip: Pay attention to the edition offered by citation generator and management tools, and choose accordingly.

Citation Help from Purdue OWL

Purdue Online Writing Lab

The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) contains writing resources and instructional materials focused on the writing process, academic writing, mechanics, grammar, punctuation, and more. 

 

The Purdue OWL has been the go-to resource for researchers and librarians for many years. It is still a good resource despite the advertisements (they partnered with Chegg).

Videos on Citing Sources

Citation: A (Very) Brief Introduction

Why We Cite

How We Cite

Citation Generator & Organization Tools

Use any of these citation generators to quickly create citations. 

Use with caution, though. Not all are 100% accurate. Some miss finer details like capitalization or punctuation. Proof the final citations according to a style manual.