The acknowledgment of the source is essential when you paraphrase in research or other academic assignments. It means to cite a paraphrased statement. This way, the writer references the source from which they adapted the content or excerpted the information.
Citation helps to eliminate the chances of plagiarism by stating the author’s name and providing significant information about the source content that you have rewritten in your assignment. So, if you would like to know about how to cite a paraphrased statement then let us help you.
In this article, we will provide you with a brief overview of the three widely-used citation styles: APA, MLA, and Chicago.
Stay with us and keep reading!
What are Paraphrasing and Citation?
Paraphrasing is the act of expressing someone else’s ideas through your own words while staying true to the original meaning. It means that when you paraphrase a statement, you only change its wording, not the intent. In order to paraphrase a statement, a writer may substitute appealing synonyms, change the voice of sentences, shorten or expand the sentences, and even reorder the information.
In academic writing, when you take information from a source such as a direct or indirect quote and rewrite it in your own wording, it may be considered plagiarism. Therefore, you need to mention the author, publication year, and page number along with a paraphrased statement to give a proper reference to the source. It is called a citation.
You can use Paraphrasingtool.ai’s plagiarism checker to track sources for citations. All you need to do either upload your complete article or simply enter a few statements that relates to your study.
It will quickly looks up the web to find the sources with which the given content matches so that you can find out about the author and publication history of the paraphrased statements. You can click on the link given next to the matched text to access the source material and find right information for citations.
What is the Purpose of Citation?
Citation is the means to refer to a source from which we copy an idea or statement. It is widely used in academics to avoid plagiarism which is not acceptable in any case.
For instance, when we write a research paper, we often quote another author either to specify the research gaps or authenticate our findings. Even if we change the wording of a statement, it will be considered plagiarized. Therefore, after writing a paraphrased statement in the research paper, the next step is to give the credit to the original source. This can be done by including “in-text citations within the body of the paper” or “references at the end of the paper”.
For now, we will focus only on “in-text citations”. There are main three formts to do in-text citations that include APA, MLA, and Chicago styles. It is important to understand that not all citation styles can be applied to all types of research works.
So, let us discuss these citation styles in detail to highlight how their formatting and uses differ from one another. This way, you will get practical knowledge about how to cite paraphrased statements in your research works with ease.
What are the 3 Formats to Cite a Paraphrased Statement?
There are three simple formats to cite a paraphrased statement that includes APA, MLA, and Chicago citations. These citation styles may look similar but there are some key differences between them.
Let us explain each citation style and break down their differences.
APA (7th Edition) Citations
APA stands for American Psychological Association. It was primarily created for psychological and science studies, but now many other academic fields also use this citation format.
In APA format, we use the author’s name and publication year. In the case of a direct quote, the page number of the source is also included. Moreover, only the last name of the author is usually mentioned in this citation style
For Example
This in-text citation refers to the line that is taken from page no. 90 of Noam Chomsky’s research paper that was published in 2000.
If you are still unclear about how to follow the APA citation format, let us clarify it for you:
In-text citation
The APA in-text citation can be written in two ways: narrative and parenthetical style.
In parenthetical citation, the author’s name and the date of publication are written within parentheses. Whereas in the narrative citation, the author’s name is written as part of the sentence while the date of publication is mentioned within the parentheses.
| Parenthetical APA Citation | Narrative APA Citation |
|---|---|
| A clause is a group of words including a subject and a verb forming part of a sentence (Hicks, 2007, p. 20) | Hicks 2007, p. 20) stated that a clause is a group of words including a subject and a verb forming part of a sentence. |
Typography
Acceptable fonts in APA style are Times New Roman (12 py) and Courier New (12 pt).
Title of Source List
When you include citations at the end of the paper then you are required to entitle the list of sources as “References”.
Author’s Name in Reference List
When you write the author’s name in the reference list then you need to mention the author’s surname followed by their name’s initial letter e.g. Chomsky, N.
Capitalization of Reference Titles
When you cite a source in the reference list, you are required to capitalize only the first word of the line. e.g. The journal of process types in transitivity system.
Title Page
When you follow APA format, you must include a separate title page in your research paper.
MLA Citations
MLA stands for Modern Language Association. It is primarily used for arts and humanities research works including the citation of paintings, books, novels, and other forms of literature.
Essentially, what differentiates MLA style from other citation formats is that it doesn’t include the publication year of the cited source.
Let us clearly highlight how we follow the MLA citation format to cite any paraphrased statement:
In-text Citations
In MLA style, you only use the author’s name and page number e.g. (Chomsky, p. 90).
Typography
Times New Roman fonts sized “12 pt” is usually used in MLA style.
Title of Source List
When you write the list of sources according to the MLA citation format, then you entitle it as “Works Cited”.
Author’s Name in Reference List
The MLA style requires you to write the first name of the author followed by their last name in the source list e.g. Chomsky, Noam.
Capitalization of Reference Titles
Following the MLA style, you write the title of a book, journal, or paper in the source list using “Title Case” e.g. The Journal of Process Types in Transitivity System
Title Page
In the case of MLA citation, you are not required to add a title page.
Chicago Citations
The Chicago Manual of Style enables us to create separate comprehensive sections on formatting, citations, charts, tables, quotations, and numbers.
The Chicago format lays down guidelines for two styles of citation that include “notes and bibliography” and “author-date”. Whether you use notes or author-date citation style, there should always be a list of references (bibliography) at the end of the paper.
Footnotes and Endnotes
Chicago footnote or endnote citation (long/shortened) mainly includes the author’s name and the title of the cited source. Anyhow, there can be some exceptions following the type of source that you need to cite.
For instance, if you are required to cite a journal article then you need to follow this pattern; “author’s name, article title, volume, and issue date”.
This perfectly exemplifies a long note Chicago style citation.
Author-date Style
It uses parenthetical in-text citations to highlight the author’s name, publication year, and publication date e.g. (Chomsky, 2000, 20)
Bottom Line
Citation is very important to write plagiarism-free content and to give credit to the original text. With the help of citations, the references to the sources are mentioned within the body and at the end of the research papers to help the other researchers to find the sources. In research and academics, there are three commonly used citation formats: APA, MLA, and Chicago. Anyhow, the citation style is chosen according to the discipline of study.
Emma John is a writer with deep understanding of AI rewriters and paraphrasing tools. She is currently pursuing Computer Science at the University of St Andrews in the United Kingdom. She excels in writing about the advances in technology and its allied fields.
