Writing 130: Grant and Proposal Writing (Ocena)

Organizing your research can help make the writing and citing process easier. Use tips from this page to guide you in this step. 

Why do we cite? Several reasons! 

1. It makes us look good. Seriously, it's ethical and responsible to help readers differentiate our ideas from those we are using from others.
2. It helps us point our readers to our sources where they can more deeply engage with the scholarly conversation.
3. It helps us to learn how to communicate formally within our discipline/major.
4. We avoid plagiarism by quoting the words or paraphrasing ideas of other scholars.

Citing Sources

Many of the library's databases allow you to save or email an APA citation for an article. 

Look for the following buttons or links:

Depending on which database you are in, you can selecting the "Citation Tools" link to save the citation in APA format or click on the "Cite this article" icon to get citations from several different style guides.  Make sure you select the appropriate style for your citations. For WRI 130, that will be APA style. When you get the citation, it may look like one of the following examples: 

Tips for Managing Volunteers With Disabilities. (Sept 14, 2006). v18 i23 pNA Chronicle of Philanthropy, 18(23). p.NA. Retrieved 

      March 25, 2009, from Academic OneFile via Gale: http://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do?prodId=AONE

Karl, K., Peluchette, J., & Hall, L. (2008, August). Give Them Something to Smile About: A Marketing Strategy for Recruiting

      and Retaining Volunteers. Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing, 20(1), 71-96. Retrieved 

      March 25, 2009, doi:10.1080/10495140802165360

Warning: Don't just copy and paste these citations into your paper! Note the errors and extraneous information in the above citations in red. The library's databases are good at getting the right pieces of information in the right places for these citations, but they are not perfect. You will need to make some modifications to these to ensure they follow the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Pay particular attention to capitalization and punctuation. 

If you need a link to your article, make sure that you look for a permanent or persistent link.  When searching a database, the link displayed at the top of your browser window is often a temporary link, which will not work at a later time and should not be the one you use in your citation or reference list.

Schedule a visit with the University Writing Center or check out the resources below for more help with APA style.

Official Style Manuals

There are many different types of academic and professional writing styles. The four guidebooks below represent some of the major ones. Use these guides to learn how professional researchers and writers prepare their manuscripts for publication or sharing.

Online Style Resources

Although these resources are not official, they are still credible and very useful! If one of these websites doesn't answer your question, check out the official style guide or contact a librarian for help!

Guides from UC Merced Library