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COM 1100 & HON 1130: Citing Quality Sources

Resources to help you prepare your speeches and presentations

Oral Citation

Citation in COM 1100 is a little bit different because you need to use oral citations. That is, instead of using something like MLA style like you would in a paper, you need to credit your sources within your actual speech. What do you need to include in an oral citation?

A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself: What does your audience need to know to assess the source of information and look it up later?

Oral Citation Examples

Books

  • What to include: Title + Author + year (if recency is important) + credentials
  • Example: Psychotherapist and Episcopal Priest, Ian Cron and his colleague Suzanne Stabile, a widely known Enneagram expert wrote a book that they published in 2016 called The Road Back to You. In it, they argue that…

Periodicals and Journals

  • What to include: Periodical Title (not article) + Date (if recency is important) + Author + Credentials and/or university where research was conducted
  • Example: “Dr. Andrew Bland, a communication disorders researcher at Indiana State University, published a review of empirical research on the Enneagram in the Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education & Development. He found that…”
  • Example: “An article published this past May in Relevant Magazine quoted Richard Rohr, a spiritual writer and Franciscan friar who is an expert on the Enneagram in spiritual life….”

Websites 

  • What to include: Base Address + Qualifications + Post Date (if given)  
  • Example: “The Enneagram Institute is a research organization formed in the late 90s to better understand the Enneagram. According to their website, the RHETI is a scientifically-tested instrument that can…"

Examples of Visual Source Citations

Need to cite sources on a PowerPoint? Check out the example in the slides below.

What Kinds of Sources Should I Cite?

What kinds of sources should you be using in your speeches? Your speeches should have a healthy mix of A & B sources and should avoid C sources.

A B C
  • Scholarly, Peer Reviewed Articles
  • Books
  • Interview with an Expert
  • Magazine Articles
  • Newspapers
  • Reference Sources (e.g., music encyclopedia, almanacs, etc.)
  • Documentary featuring Experts
  • Websites with direct and authoritative relevance to topic (e.g., American Psychological Association)
  • Wikipedia
  • Websites where better quality sources are readily available (Web MD, commercial websites, biased websites)

Note: These can be good for gaining broad knowledge about your topic and pointing you to quality primary sources, but they should not be used as your primary sources.

Note: if you use a quote from Buzzfeed to add humor to a speech, show a Youtube video, or include a picture from a website, your instructor most likely wouldn’t consider those to be “research” sources—just places where you accessed bits of supporting material. If you have questions about what counts as a source, ask!

Other Resources

If you need to cite sources in a paper, using a specific style like MLA, APA, or Chicago, be sure to check out the information on the Citing Sources Guide. There's examples, links and other helpful information on formulating proper citations!