Responsive image

Mechanical Engineering: Citation & Referencing

Use this guide to help you locating Mechanical Engineering resources available through BUE Library and beyond.

How to use Mendeley?

Citation Generators

Citation Machine
Citation Machine is a free site that automatically produces MLA, APA, Turabian or Chicago style citations for a variety of sources (but not bibliographies). Users can copy and paste citations into Word. It was developed by David Warlick, an educator.

KnightCite
KnightCite is a free site that automatically produces MLA, APA, or Chicago style citations for 25 types of sources with availability to register & save citations. From the Hekman Library at Calvin College.

The APA Wizard and The MLA Wizard
This free site automatically produces MLA or APA style citations for 6 basic types of sources. There is excellent help on each screen to assist users through the process of citing a source.

Tweet2Cite
This generator will develop citations for tweets for documentation.  Simply paste the tweet URL and it will be converted into an APA or MLA citation.

Citation Managers

Here is a list of online reference managers that you can use to gather, manage, store and share all types of information, as well as generate citations and bibliographies. 

EndNote Web (Basic) (online registration is necessary)

RefWorks (online registration is necessary)

Citavi (free download)

Zotero (free download)

EasyBib

Understanding Citation

  • Citation:

It is the way readers know that certain parts in the work or research come from another source. It also gives the readers the necessary information so as to find that source again, and that includes:

  • Author(s) / Editor(s) name(s)
  • Title of the work
  • Name and location of the publisher of the source and the edition used
  • Date of publication
  • Page number(s) of the qoted or cited material

  • Referencing

Is an essential part of academic writing. Its purpose is to acknowledge the original source of ideas and work that is not the author’s own, and to refer the readers to the original documents so as to determine independently whether the attributed sources support the author’s argument as written.

  • Whenever you use quotes

  • Whenever you paraphrase

  • Whenever you use an idea that someone else has already expressed

  • Whenever you make specific reference to the work of another

  •  Whenever someone else’s work has been critical in developing your own ideas

  • To respect the copyrights of the writer whose ideas are quoted, summarised or paraphrased.

  • To create a more persuasive and academic research

  • To allow other users to trace the sources of information used and discussed

  • To validate the arguments

  • To prevent plagiarism

  • Citation:

It is a reference made in the research or paper to a source of information. This can be in the form of a direct quotation, summary or paraphrase.

  • References list:

It is an organised listing of the works cited in the text, placed at the end of the document. It follows a specific citation style such as the MLA, APA...etc.

  • Bibliography:

A full listing of all material consulted in relation to the research, including any source material that is not directly cited in the text. This list is placed at the end of the document, research or paper.

Avoiding Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the act of using others' words / ideas without clearly acknowledging their source. In doing so, the researcher claimes these ideas as the researcher's own; this may lead to course failure as a result of academic miscoduct. 

In order to avoid that:

“Built-in” Citation Builders through EbscoHost

EbscoHost databases provide its users with ability to get the full citation according to all citation styles for the item being viewed:

  1. Click on Cite button, choose the required citation format & then copy & paste it to Microsoft Word or export it using any reference manager

Choosing a Citation Style

There are different forms of citation styles. Many disciplines tend to use one specific style; for example, APA style is used in psychology while disciplines in science & technology use a variety of style manuals.

Your instructor should inform you with the preferred citation style before you start your research.

APA Citation Style

Writing Help

Turnitin is an effective tool used for displaying and comparing texts that are similar to the submitted research across the internet and other sources. That will help students to develop their writing by using their own words rather than quoting or copying & pasting.

Visit the Writing Center in Building D to get assistance with writing papers, also the English Department offers "one to one" session for students working on their projects,

Useful Study Skills guides from Emerald Insight include:

Also:

Top writing skills from Oxford Dictionaries: a clear guidance for tips on writing good English.

Tags: Automotive, Combustion, fluid mechanics, Hydraulics, Kinematics, Machines, Manufacturing, Materials, Mechatronics, Robotics, Thermodynamics

Subjects: Mechanical Engineering