Ultimately, your ability to document your sources will demonstrate to your readers that you understand how scholarship must recognize the work of others honestly and accurately. In support of that, "style guides" have been developed by a number of professional organizations. These style guides are designed to present documenting information, or documentation, in a consistent manner so that any reader can learn where the sources may be located and find that source if the reader wishes.

Learn how to cite sources in the context of your paper as well as in the Works Cited or Reference section.

While reading your paper, readers want to know where you got your ideas. They don't want to merely look at the end to see what sources they used, they want to know, within the context of each point that you are making, which of the ideas are yours and which are from a source.

You need in-text citation for material that you paraphrase or summarize as well as for material that you quote.

Parenthetical or in-text references vary in different style guides. For example, MLA expects you to put the author's name and the page in parentheses, for example (Rodrigues 54).