You cite your sources to give credit to the work(s) you read and used for your paper or project. Otherwise, you risk plagiarizing/stealing and taking credit for someone else's work.

You cite sources in one of two formats, depending on the class. Citations for the humanities (English, for example) are in MLA format. Citations for social sciences (history or biology, for example) are in APA format.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

• "What even is MLA and APA?" MLA stands for Modern Language Association and APA stands for American Psychological Association . . .and to make it more confusing, there is a third style! But you won't need to worry about that one in high school. For now, here's a comparison & definition chart of all 3 styles.

• "What is a Bibliography?" A list of books used for academic work; printed and at the end of the paper/project. The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue offers both MLA and APA example bibliography samples.

• "What is a Works Cited?" According to MLA style, you must create a Works Cited page for the end of your research paper. All entries in the Works Cited page must correspond to the works cited in your writing. The OWL at Purdue offers a guide to formatting an MLA Works Cited page and a MLA Sample Works Cited Page.

• "What is a Reference page?" According to APA style, you must create a Reference page for the end of your science project/paper. The APA sample reference page is helpful. 

• "I need to write a paper for my science class. What is the structure of that paper?" APA paper sections as well as a general APA guide is made easy by the OWL at Purdue. Quick example paper including Reference page, discussed above.