How to Cite Works
How to make a works cited page
How to use parenthetical notation and footnotes - Note: This is the preferred method of the West Seattle High School Social Studies Department.
What is a "cite" anyway:
A "cite" is a citation of the source of a piece of information or a quote in a text. Usually, this means that in an essay you must cite your sources. So, when you take a lot of information from one source, or when you take a particularly specific piece of information from a source, you MUST give credit to the person who wrote the information in the first place.
This is not only good manners, but it is legally important. To claim the work of another as your own is dishonest, so you MUST cite. In the "real world," outside of school, failure to cite is a criminal offense known as copyright violation or misrepresentation. Since you will eventually find yourself in the real world, and since you might eventually be the person getting ripped off, I suggest you learn to cite now and make everyone else do it.
As the internet makes it easier to find vast amounts of nearly untraceable data, citing becomes even more important. To make sure that we all have "true" facts, we must keep track of where we found our information. Otherwise, bad "facts" (either lies or misperceptions) will work their way into the accepted body of truth. So, as you can see, historians take citing very seriously; it is the nature of our profession. Citations are the map to the source of truth, just like the old maps that traced the source of the Nile to the kingdom of Prester John.