Research. It's one of the major reasons students use the Internet. Elementary and secondary students now rely on the Internet as a major fact-gathering tool. Just as students cite the books and periodicals they use to support their research, so must they also cite their online sources in their bibliographies. Students should understand that it's perhaps more important to cite Internet sources, since the nature of the technology makes it easy to copy, cut, and paste between documents. Listing sites in a bibliography also makes students aware that their teachers can follow up on their work to check its veracity.

What follows are examples of how to cite seven different types of online information sources. For each type, we show you how to structure the citation. followed by two examples.
 
 

Web sites about citations

Several web sites offer more information about citing electronic sources,

n MIA Citation Guide http://www.cas.usf.edu/english/walker/mla.html

n Citing All Kinds of Documents http://www.phhs.org/library/bib/kirk.html

n Williams College Library Web http://www.williams.edu/803/library/library.www/cite.html

E-Mail Structure

Author of e-mail message. Subject line of the message. [Online] Available e-mail: student@address.edu from author@address.edu, date of message.

n Robert, Eric. Nile Research Project results. [Online] Available e-mail: student1@smallvillehigh.edu from ert@informns.k12.mn.us, February 3, 1996.

n Taylor, Barry. Hubble Space Telescope image enhancement techniques, [Online] Available e-mail: student2@exeter.high.edu from btayIor@hst.nasa.gov, January 23, 1995.

Gopher Structure

Author. Title of gopher item. [Online]

Available gopher:, address, path, date of document or download.

n U.S. Department of Agriculture. Agriculture Statistics for 4th Quarter 1995. [Online] Available gopher: agri.usda.gov, Department of Agriculture/Latest Statistics for 1995/4th Quarter Folder, January 28, 1996.

n Chalmers, Andrea. Bosnia: A Country in Transition. [Online] Available gopher: nywer.net, Today's News/World News/Bosnia-Herzegovina, February 5, 1996.

Telnet Structure

Author. Title of item. [Online] Available telnet: address, path*, date of document or download.

n Brady. Larry E. Map of Iraqi Troop Movements for 1/9/96. [Online] Available telnet: fedworld.gov.Government InformatJon/ClA/Maps/ Latest Maps/Iraq. January 10, 1996.

n Jackson, Fred. Statistical Weather Data for Wisconsin, January 1996 [Online] Available telnet: weather.machine.umcp.edu Weather Data/January 1996/States/Zooms/Data/Wisconsin, February 25, 1996.

FTP Structure

Author. Title of item. [Online] Available ftp: address, path/filename, date of document or download.

n Hess, Hanna. Networking in the Information Age. [Online] Available ftp: 194,335,23.10, pub/research/internet/network.txt. February 5, 1996.

n Gates, Gary. Shakespeare and his Muse. [Online] Available ftp: ftp.guten.net.gproject/texts/english/ bard/research/muse.txt, March 1, 1996.

World Wide Web Structure

Author. Title of item. [Online] Available http://address/filename, date of document or download.

n DiStefano, Vince. Guidelines for better writing. [Online] Available http://www.usa.net/~vinced/home/better-writing.html, January 9, 1996.

n Yule, James. The Cold War Revisited: A Splintered Germany. [Online] Available http://usa.coldwar.server. gov/index/cold.war/countries/former.soviet.block/Germany/germany.html, March 5, 1996.

Usenet Groups Structure

Author. Title of item. [Online] Available usenet: group, date of post.

n Brown, David. Educational Insights 1995, [Online] Available usenet: k12.ed.researoh, December 27, 1995.

n Madige, Ellen. How to Build a Better Mousetrap. [Online] Available usenet: sci.tech.inventions.mousetrap, January 16, 1996.

Online chat (IRC) Structure

Name of online speaker. [Online] Available IRC: telnet <site address>, IRC channel name, date of session.

n McBane, Lisa, [Online] Available IRC: telnet world.sensemedia.net: 6677, #egypt, March 8, 1996,

n Frappe, Francois. [Online] Available IRC: telnet france.irc.edu: 1234, #france, January 23, 1996.