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Northwestern Health Sciences University

Library Instruction Guide

A guide to library instruction including topics that can be covered in class and a list of recommended tutorials based on topic area.

I want my students to have better citations

Citations are tricky for students, especially if it has never been explained to them why citations are important.  It's hard to capture all of the nuances.  Here are some (or all) tutorials the library would recommend for students struggling with citations. 

I.  The basics of Citations
This tutorial is a self-paced tutorial explaining why we cite, basic components of citing, and discussing the two styles often used at NWHSU.  

Link: https://view.genial.ly/602c8620af5cc30da5116373/presentation-general-guide-to-citating
Contact library@nwhealth.edu for an embed code

II. The library's citation LibGuide
The library developed a guide for both AMA and APA citations.  
AMA: https://nwhealth.libguides.com/writing/AMA
APA: https://nwhealth.libguides.com/writing/APA

You can also upload either of these QuickGuides below into Moodle.  

 

III Citation Management Tool
Students will often turn to a citation generator to create citations they use in the paper.  These are decent at creating the citations for the reference list but not all of them offer in-text citation help.  The library recommends citation organizers Mendeley and Zotero.  Not only do they create and organize citations for a reference list, but they also generate in-text citations.  

Warning:  All citation generators have issues with web links because often URLs/web links don't contain all the metadata needed to create a citation. Those references either need to be done by hand or the website metadata needs to be entered into the citation generator by hand.  

Since some Apple users find it difficult to work with Mendeley, I usually recommend Zotero to them.  See links to the training videos below.