Why is it important to use citations in a history paper?

Citing or documenting the sources used in your research serves three purposes: It gives proper credit to the authors of the words or ideas that you incorporated into your paper. It allows those who are reading your work to locate your sources, in order to learn more about the ideas that you include in your paper.

Do you need to cite history?

In a research paper for history, you generally need not cite common knowledge. Common knowledge may be considered any information readily available in any encyclopedia. No need to include the source of this basic information. Arcane or debated facts of the past, however, need to be cited.

How do you cite history?

The first footnote citation of a work should supply the full name of the author with given name appearing before surname, the exact title as found on the title page (unless it is excessively long), the edition (if later than the first), the city of publication (the name of the publisher is optional), the date of …