NHD projects offer many opportunities for students to learn how to properly credit sources via citations and annotated bibliography. Citing a source means giving credit to the original source of a piece of information. It is a requirement in NHD projects. Citing sources allows future researchers to follow up and expand on your research. NHD projects require citing all primary and secondary sources
Why Cite your Sources?
It is important to cite sources in order to guide readers and future researchers to your sources, and to avoid plagiarism. Often, plagiarism can be accidental, from not keeping clear notes or staying organized during the research process. Students should learn that plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, the following examples:
- Turning in someone else’s project as their own.
- Failing to put quotation marks around direct quotes and include both a source credit and a proper citation of the source.
- Failing to provide proper citations for all quoted and paraphrased material.
- Failing to provide the sources for audio, video, or images used in your project.
- Giving incorrect information about the source of a quote.
What Format?
- From the NHD Rulebook: Citations and bibliographic references must follow the most recent edition of one of the two permitted style guides below. Regardless of which manual you use, the style must be consistent throughout all written material.
- The Chicago Manual of Style by the University of Chicago Press
- MLA Handbook by the Modern Languages Association of America
- Historians prefer The Chicago Manual of Style because its footnote/endnote formatting works best for historical sources. However, NHD accepts the MLA Handbook because of its widespread use in many schools.
- Many online tools and guides are available for both types of citations.
Annotated Bibliography Resources: