Google docs citation tool

Google docs has a citation tool which makes citing sources much easier. There are other citation tools available, non of them are perfect and it is your responsibility to check the output from any citation tool

Example

Here is a section of text that has paraphrased an article on the BBC website

When league two Notts County unveiled the former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson as director of football in 2009 and he was swiftly followed by former England captain Sol Campbell and future Danish international Kasper Schmeichel the world of football was shocked. Within a few months it became clear that they, the football league, the Notts County supporters, the North Korean government and many others had been conned by convicted fraudster Russell King.

We need to provide a citation for this paraphrased piece of the essay

Step 1 - Selecting the citation tool

Select the google docs citation tool from Tools ---> Citations

Step 2 - Selecting the referencing style

This will bring up the citations tool in a side bar.

Select the referencing style you are using - MLA (8th ed.) and then click '+ Add citation source'

Step 3 - Selecting the source type

Select the type of source you are using. In this example we are using a website

And then add the URL to the search box and click 'Search'

Step 4 - First check on the information returned

The software returns the information that it has found for the work. Your job now is to check whether the software has returned the information you were expecting or something completely different. If it is what you were expecting click 'continue'. If it isn't then you will have to 'cite manually'

Step 5 - Second check on the information returned and adding missing information

Prssing 'continue' in the previous step brings up the MLA containers filled out with the infomation that the software has found

Pressing 'cite manually' in the previous step brings up the MLA containers but with no information

It is now your responsibility to check carefully that all the information in the containers is correct and that any further information that you can find but the software has missed is filled in

Once you are sure that the citation is complete, click 'add citation source'

Which will bring up your reference as shown on the right

Hovering your pointer over the refernce box will bring up a button to 'insert in-text citation'

Click this

Step 6 - Adjusting the citation to the approaches used by the school

The in-text citation has now been added as can seen below

When league two Notts County unveiled the former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson as director of football in 2009 and he was swiftly followed by former England captain Sol Campbell and future Danish international Kasper Schmeichel the world of football was shocked. Within a few months it became clear that they, the football league, the Notts County supporters, the North Korean government and many others had been conned by convicted fraudster Russell King. (Robinson)

This citation is correct for the MLA style which uses an author-page citation approach however at La Chataigneraie we have decided that we will either use author-date or numerical footnoting

Author Date

To do author-date we would change the citation to (Robinson 2022)

Numerical Footnoting

To do numerical footnoting we would click Insert---> Footnote

and then copy the citation source into the footnote.

So our citation would say

fraudster Russel King 1 (please note, the 1 should be superscript but google sites does not seem to allow superscript text!!)

and our numerical footnote would say

1 Robinson, Ben. “Notts County and the conman: Following your team through a football scam.” BBC, 25 March 2022, https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/60794963. Accessed 19 January 2023.

Step 7 - Adding the works cited section to your document

Finally, at the end of your work should be a 'works cited' section. Click the 'Insert works cited' button and it will appear at the end of your document

Work Cited

Robinson, Ben. “Notts County and the conman: Following your team through a football scam.” BBC, 25 March 2022, https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/60794963. Accessed 19 January 2023.