Students researching an inquiry question or gathering information for a report must learn to cite the source of their data. This is especially true when using online resources. Readers may want to look at the references to find more details. Teachers may want to check that students have paraphrased the material into their own words. The good news is that citing reference sources is a quick and easy task when using digital tools.
A citation should have as much information as possible, including author’s name, date published, web page title or publisher, and the web address. There are many citation styles used to format the source. The most popular are APA and MLA. Each style has rules about where to put the information and type of punctuation to use.
Online citation generators save time. To use one:
- Choose the style of citation.
- Pick the type of resource. For a website, enter the URL.
- Fill in any missing information if you can.
- With the click of one button, the citation is created.
- Copy and paste it into your research project.
Try it! Here are five great citation and bibliography generators:
TechnoResearch is a TechnoKids 
technology project that teaches the steps of the research process. It can be applied to any curriculum area or topic. Students make a one page fact card and cite the sources of their information.