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Again, depending on the citation style in use, you will copy the entire URL or eliminate a part of it before, including in your citation. You will then follow up this with the date of retrieval and finally, the DOI or URL. In the absence of the title of the post, the webpage will replace this. This will be either in italics or in quotation marks. The title of the source will come next and depending on the specific citation style.
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In the absence of the name of the author, the name of the Publication will replace the name of the author. The surname of the author will come first and the first name will come last in all citation styles. However, all the citation styles will follow a general format, albeit with a few variations.
How to cite sources in an essay examples how to#
The specifics of how to cite a website in an essay will depend on the citation style that your institution or program requires you to use. This represents the date when the web page was uploaded to the website. Date The Page or Site Was Published (if available) Moreover, the publisher name may be omitted from the citation if it is the same as the website title. Name of The Publisherįor websites, the publisher is the author of the post or page or the organization behind the website. It is an HTML element that specifies the content of a webpage. It usually appears at the top of the tab. It also refers to one part or page of a website. This is usually at the top of the page and sometimes at the very top of your browser. Usually, the author’s name is the first thing listed in a citation unless there is no author. The author is responsible for creating the work, and it can either be an individual or a group. This is important because information quickly becomes obsolete online. The importance of listing the date you retrieved the source is to enable the reviewer or reader to gauge how old the source is. MLA requires that you list the date, month and the year at the end of text citation.įor APA, MLA and Chicago, the in-text citation only requires that you write the year you accessed the source. As with a book or any other source, you will list the name of the author or publication and follow it up with a comma then the date. This date is also vital in the in-text citation, especially for APA. The exact date on which you access the source you are going to use in your essay is important to include in your end of text citation. However, get to know whether the organization or institution you are writing requires that you list one or both of these resource identifiers. It is, therefore, a better alternative to use the DOI rather than use the URL when writing your end of text citation. The reason for this is that even though a website owner may choose to bring down his or her website, the DOI will remain in place. The DOI is more reliable compared to the URL. It allows the essay reviewer to locate the exact source of the reference you use in your essay. The digital object identifier works similarly to the URL. APA still requires that you include the URL if available. Search engines can also bring down a website if the website violates certain guidelines. One of the main reasons for this is that website owners can bring down websites. Most recently, MLA does not require that you include the URL in your end of text citation, as was the previous case. However, you should note that updates continue to come out for the different citation styles.
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It is important to include the URL in your end of text citation. The unique resource locator helps you identify where exactly online you found your source.
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