Early Childhood Education Resources

As graduate students and teachers, regardless of how you use copyrighted material, you always want to be sure to provide a proper citation to that material. Citing resources is essential for giving credit to your sources and maintaining academic integrity as a Relay student and a teaching professional. You must provide a citation whenever you use someone else’s work, be it a direct quote, idea, summarization, fact, video, image, or other media. 

We cite for many reasons, including: to give proper credit to the original author, to allow readers to find the original material for further research, and giving light to your research process. Citing your sources also helps to safeguard you against plagiarism. Plagiarism is when you present someone else’s words or ideas as your own. It is a serious academic offense at Relay and as a student here you have signed an academic integrity guide stating that you will not plagiarize.  

Relay encourages you to use the American Psychological Association (APA) citation style. This style is widely used at education institutions where a single, uniform standard is desired for teaching purposes. This Relay APA guide, available below, is a helpful resource as you write your citations. If what you are trying to cite does not match exactly with any of the examples on the APA guide, don't be afraid to use what one APA blogger calls a "Frankenreference" (McAdoo, 2010). In other words, mix and match examples as needed. It is more important that you include enough information to find the original resource than that you follow APA format exactly.