What is a Citation?
A citation is a quote or a reference to a book, article, passage, or other text or author. It contains the basic information that is needed to find a specific document, including the document’s author, title, and publication information.
Citations are used to give credit to authors for original ideas and arguments. That means that whenever you make a reference to another document or use an argument from another author in your writing, you need to cite that document and give credit to the author for their ideas.