Citation
A formal reference that lets a reader locate the source of a quote.
A citation is the formal apparatus that tells a reader exactly where a quotation came from: author, title, publisher, year, and page. A good citation is verifiable — a reader can follow the trail and find the line in a library or database.
Style guides (MLA, APA, Chicago, Harvard, AP) prescribe slightly different formats, but the underlying goal is the same: make every claim checkable. In serious writing, an unverifiable quotation is treated as no quotation at all.
Online citation is harder than print citation because links rot, URLs change, and the same article can appear at several addresses. Best practice is to cite the page title, the site, the author when known, and the date of access.
“See Bartlett, Familiar Quotations, 18th ed., p. 412.”
Keep reading the glossary
The act of naming the original speaker or writer of a quote.
The original record of a quote — the book, letter, speech, or recording in which it first appeared.
A later account that reports a quote, rather than recording it directly.
A citation shorthand meaning 'in the same source as the previous note'.