Citation Style Language
Hi there! Are you ready to learn about citation style language? It's a way of writing down where we got information from when we talk about something we've read.
Let's pretend you have a favorite book that you want to tell all your friends about. You might say, "I read in my book that honeybees have a special type of dance to tell other bees where to find flowers." That's great! But, to make sure your friends know where you found that information, you might also say, "According to my book (which is called 'The Secret Life of Bees' and was written by Sue Monk Kidd), honeybees perform a dance called the 'waggle dance' to communicate to other bees the location of a food source."
That extra information about the book title and author is a citation! And, there are different styles of writing these citations depending on the type of source you're using (like a book, a website, or a journal article). Instead of always having to remember all the details of each citation style, we can use a citation style language.
A citation style language is like a template or set of rules that helps us write down our citations in a consistent and accurate way. So, if you were using a citation style language called APA (which stands for American Psychological Association), you might write the citation for 'The Secret Life of Bees' like this:
Kidd, S.M. (2002). The secret life of bees. New York, NY: Penguin Books.
See how the author's name comes first? And how the book title is in italics? Those are some of the rules we follow when using the APA citation style.
Different fields of study (like science, history, or literature) might prefer different citation styles, so it's important to learn which one to use for each project. But, with the help of a citation style language, we can all become experts at citing our sources!
Let's pretend you have a favorite book that you want to tell all your friends about. You might say, "I read in my book that honeybees have a special type of dance to tell other bees where to find flowers." That's great! But, to make sure your friends know where you found that information, you might also say, "According to my book (which is called 'The Secret Life of Bees' and was written by Sue Monk Kidd), honeybees perform a dance called the 'waggle dance' to communicate to other bees the location of a food source."
That extra information about the book title and author is a citation! And, there are different styles of writing these citations depending on the type of source you're using (like a book, a website, or a journal article). Instead of always having to remember all the details of each citation style, we can use a citation style language.
A citation style language is like a template or set of rules that helps us write down our citations in a consistent and accurate way. So, if you were using a citation style language called APA (which stands for American Psychological Association), you might write the citation for 'The Secret Life of Bees' like this:
Kidd, S.M. (2002). The secret life of bees. New York, NY: Penguin Books.
See how the author's name comes first? And how the book title is in italics? Those are some of the rules we follow when using the APA citation style.
Different fields of study (like science, history, or literature) might prefer different citation styles, so it's important to learn which one to use for each project. But, with the help of a citation style language, we can all become experts at citing our sources!