Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Google Docs adds a citation button just in time for finals and end of semester papers


The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas can be an emotional roller coaster for a college student: first, you get to go home, feast, see your hometown friends; then you head back to school only to realize there are still finals and papers in the way before the extended Christmas break. The last thing on your mind is making sure your paper is formatted correctly before handing it to the professor and peacing out for the holidays.


A little update on Google Docs should help make life a little easier by allowing students (and other researchers) to automatically add paper citations with just a few clicks. It’s part of the Explore tool launched on G Suite back in fall 2015 — you can search for the link you intend to add to your paper and click a button on the right side to select which format you want your citation to be (MLA, APA, or Chicago.) It’s particularly useful if you’re bad at remembering how to format for each style. (Sorry, mom, but citation skills were not something your money paid for with tuition.)

Previously, to add a citation you had to manually insert a footnote. The update makes the process just a touch quicker by eliminating the need to copy and paste.

G Suite’s quick citation update will be available on December 6th.

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