Citing Statistics

A statistic is a “number” that contains information about your topic. Consider the following sentence:

Communist dictator Joseph Stalin killed 20 million people.

In this case, “20 million people” is a statistic. Any time you include a statistic in your paper, you must cite it immediately with a parenthetical citation!

Therefore, properly formatted, the sentence should look like this:

Communist dictator Joseph Stalin killed 20 million people (Ivankin).

Check Your Understanding:

1. What is a statistic?
2. Whenever you cite a statistic, what must you do right away (at the end of the sentence that contains the statistic)?

Instructions for the Quiz

Answer the questions.

Quiz