Why Bother Learning How to Cite a Website?
If you are borrowing information from a website, you have to give that website credit. So, you need to know how to properly cite a website to avoid plagiarizing someone else’s work. I know my teachers in high school and college took citing sources very seriously. In college, if you plagiarize and don’t properly cite a source, it could result in suspension or, at a minimum, in an “F” for the particular assignment or exam. Besides, if you are writing a report or an article that you want others to enjoy reading and easily see the references for, you need to use a standardized style, like MLA, APA, or Chicago, for citing a website or any other source.
It is the same as using proper grammar. The only reason we make every effort to use proper grammar is so the readers do not get so irritated with grammatical errors that they stop reading, and in turn, miss the primary purpose of the our article or report. Similarly, we use the standardized citation styles that we know our readers have become accustomed to. Different audiences are used to different styles.
The Two Different Styles Used to Cite a Website, and Which to Use:
There are two different styles to cite a website. The first style is MLA (Modern Language Association), and the second style is APA (American Psychological Association). When you decide which style you want, you can either use in-text citations or a Works Cited page.
Typically, student are told by teachers to use a style. Most teachers prefer the MLA style because the MLA Handbook has enough details about citing books, websites, anthologies, audiovisuals, and other sources that students would be more likely to use in a research paper. In comparison, the APA style is typically used in advanced research papers, such as technical reports and dissertations.
So, What is the Most Common Style to Cite a Website?
In my experience, most High School teachers and College professors typically require students to use MLA style in their assignments. The MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing is published by the MLA of America. It is aimed to be used primarily by academic scholars, college professors and their students, both undergraduate and graduate, and other writers of scholarly articles and books in the humanities discipline.
On the other hand, the emphasis in the APA Publication Manual is on references that students would typically only encounter in advanced research, such as technical reports, dissertations and proceedings of meetings. Therefore, it is very popular with writers who submit papers to publications that primarily use APA format, especially all journals published by APA and the Educational Publishing Foundation (EPF).
Luckily, we are here to teach you how to do just that without plagiarizing. Follow these links to learn more about How to Cite a Website MLA style or How to Cite a Website APA style! To learn more about citations in general, see Wikipedia.com.