Different ways to cite web sources
Academic writing differs from other forms of writing on the basis that it does not allow plagiarism. Plagiarism can be defined as the incorporation of others’ written materials, sentences, and ideas without citing it . In other words, for anything you write in your academic papers, you have to provide relevant sources. Most of the students consider citing sources as a difficult task and often get confused between various types of citation formats. Bear in mind that without accurate citations, your document is incomplete. Citation is a mandatory portion of your academic paper, therefore, you should know about proper citations and their formats.
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Usually, there are lucid citation formats for scholarly articles, studies, and research papers. You can easily understand various types of citations because they are more or less the same for articles and books. For instance, in APA, you have to provide the last name of the author and the year of publication. Similarly, in MLA format, you have to simply provide the last name of the author. Likewise, in Chicago format, you have to provide the name and publication date as well. Many students find it difficult to cite web content in their documents.
The second hurdle that students face while citing web sources is related to the date published of the sources. In many cases, there can be more than one date for a particular source. For instance, first published date, modified date, and so on. In such cases, you should use the latest modified date as the publication year of the source. If there is no date at all, search for the mentioned date within the paragraphs. I follow the same rule when I write my essay. Once you get a hint from the written material, utilize and select the relevant year of publication.
Usually, the web sources include newspapers, blogs, web pages, forums, video content, pdf documents, and so on. They are also called internet or electronic sources. In most cases, students find it difficult to trace the name of the author or the publication date. The question is how to cite a document or source without an author name or even a publication date. It increases the problems for many students whereby they find citing web sources difficult. Many students simply copy the links of web sources which is inadequate and does not fulfill the requirements of academic writing. Technically, citing web sources is not at all a difficult task; you can easily manage citing any kind of web source within your document. In the following paragraphs, I will tell you about different techniques to cite internet sources.
In most cases, the web sources do not provide the accurate name of the author. In many cases, there are no names of the author at all. What must one do in such cases? Legally, you can use the name of the publisher in place of the author's name. If the publisher's name is not clear as well, you can look for any relevant name that constitutes the source. As an essay writer, I relied on various online software to cite internet sources. You can find different online software for citing web sources.
The third hurdle related to the citation of web sources is that certain documents do not carry information about the author or publisher at all. In such cases, you should use the first few words of the document instead of the author's name. Write the words within quotation marks. The publication year followed these words in such a case. If the publication year is not provided, look for any relevant date in different sections of the document. In case of confusion you may consult a professional essay writing service provider to mitigate your problems.
For the citation of a video, you have to write the title of the video between "quotation marks." It should be followed by the medium, for example, Facebook, Youtube, or so on. The year of publication or the uploaded date followed the medium. Moreover, you can provide the links to the video in the reference or bibliography section for further clarification of the source.
Website sources are frequently used materials in lower levels of academic writing. It is permitted in school and college-level researches that students can utilize the website materials. Therefore, the student needs to understand the methods and techniques whereby they cite their document by following the established citation rules. By following the mentioned rule student would not only be able to mitigate their problems but it will also enable them to write an authentic paper without plagiarism. However, you should utilize various software and always follow the rules while citing the electronic or web sources in your document.
In a nutshell, citing web sources in a proper manner is an important factor of academic writing. There are defined rules and principles for this purpose. In this regard, only copying and pasting the links in the references or bibliography section would not serve the purpose. Clearly follow the mentioned rule in the in-text citation and do also follow the principles in the referencing. Otherwise, your document would be considered as plagiarized. It is necessary for every student to follow the steps while writing an academic paper.You can likwise contact paper writing service for more help.
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