To cite simply means to point to the evidence. You probably cite regularly in your daily life. I just did it today talking to a friend: "I was listening to a podcast this morning, and they said..." This is an example of an informal citation. Maybe you have stated a piece of information and your friend asks, "Where did you hear that?" Your friend is asking you to point to the evidence; they are asking you for a citation for the information you just passed along. So, citation is not a strange thing that we never do - we are just asked to do it differently when we are in an academic setting.
In your research-based writing projects your instructors ask you to explore a question through the use of work that other people have done. When you write about that exploration (your paper), you will use information from those other works to inform and illustrate your own ideas in that paper. Each time you include information from those other works, you need to "point to the evidence": you need to provide a citation to that work.
In the case of your papers, you need to follow a formal citation system so that it is easier for your reader to understand where your information came from. (And in the case of your instructors, if they have 52 papers to grade, it is much easier for them to evaluate your work if all 52 of those papers use the same formal citation system, and not all 52 students making their own up!)
This guide is about citation generally, and about APA and Chicago style citations specifically.
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