📚 Why Giving Credit Matters: A Kid’s Guide to Citing Sources

Learn how to show where your ideas come from and become a research superhero!

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Introduction

When you write a story, a report, or even a cool school project, you often use Information that you found in books, websites, or videos. Citing Sources means telling your readers exactly where that information came from. It’s like giving a high‑five to the original author and helps everyone know that the facts are trustworthy.

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1. What Is a Source? 🤔

A Source is any place where you get ideas, facts, pictures, or words.

• Primary Source – the original thing (a diary, a video, a scientific experiment).
• Secondary Source – someone’s summary or interpretation of the original (an encyclopedia entry, a news article).

Did You Know? The word “source” comes from the French source, meaning “the beginning of a river.” Just like a river starts somewhere, every piece of information starts somewhere too!

Why Cite? – Cause & Effect

• Cause: You use someone else’s words or data.
• Effect: If you don’t say where it came from, people might think the ideas are your original thoughts, which isn’t fair.
• Effect: Proper citations let readers check the facts themselves, making your work Credible (trust‑worthy).

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2. the Building Blocks of a Simple Citation

For school projects, you can use a Basic Citation that includes three parts:

Part	What to Include	Example
Who	Author’s name (or the creator)	Jane Goodall
What	Title of the book, article, or video	“The Secret Life of Elephants”
When	Year it was published	2022

A short in‑text citation might look like this: (Goodall, 2022). Then, at the end of your paper, you list the full details in a Reference List.

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3. How to Turn a Fact into a Citation – Step‑by‑step

1. Find The Fact – e.g., “Honey never spoils.”

2. Locate The Source – a website called National Geographic published the fact in 2021.

3. Write The In‑text Citation – “Honey

4. Write The In‑text Citation – “Honey never spoils” (National Geographic, 2021).

5. Add the Full Reference at the end of your paper:

• National Geographic. Amazing Facts About Food. 2021.

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Quiz: Test Your Citation Skills

1. Which part of a citation tells you who wrote the information?
   a) Title
   b) Author ✓
   c) Year
   d) Page number

2. If you used a video from YouTube made by Science Kids in 2020, how would the in‑text citation look?
   a) (Science Kids, 2020) ✓
   b) (2020, Science Kids)
   c) (Video, 2020)
   d) (YouTube, Science Kids)

3. Why is it important to cite your sources?
   a) To make the paper longer
   b) To show you stole ideas
   c) To give credit and help readers check facts ✓
   d) To confuse the teacher

Now you’re ready to be a citation superhero in every project!