Citation & Referencing
What is a Citation?
A ‘citation’ is the way you tell your readers that certain material in your work came from another source.
Be consistent and precise! Accuracy and completeness are important. Keep track of all your sources throughout your research process.
There are two places that you need to include your citation:
1. In text citation
2. References List
MLA Style
MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to cite sources within the arts and humanities. These resources, revised according to the 9th edition of the MLA Handbook, offer examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and reference pages:
- MLA Style from Purdue University’s OWL (Online Writing Lab)
- MLA Style Frequently Asked Questions from MLA
APA Style
APA (American Psychological Association) style is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences. These resources, revised according to the 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, offer examples for the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and reference pages:
- APA Style from Purdue University’s OWL (Online Writing Lab)
- APA Style Style and Grammar Guidelines from APA
Chicago Style
Chicago style is frequently used in books, magazines, newspapers, and other non-scholarly publications. Chicago style is very similar to Turabian style; however, while The Chicago Manual of Style focuses on providing guidelines for publishing in general, Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations focuses specifically on providing guidelines for student writers.
These resources, revised according to the 18th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style and the 9th edition of A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, offer examples for the general format of Chicago/Turabian style research papers, in-text citations, Endnotes/Footnotes, and reference pages:
- Chicago/Turabian Style from the Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin
- Chicago Style Citation Quick Guide from Chicago Manual of Style
Citation Management Tools from the Internet
Citation management software allows a user to organize and retrieve information, such as citations for books, articles, and Web sites, by interfacing with library databases. The citation manager then works with word-processing software to insert properly formatted footnotes or citations into a paper and create a properly formatted bibliography.
- Citation Machine Citation machine helps students and professional researchers to properly format citations according to the MLA, APA, Turabian, and Chicago styles. This is a free tool, that is easy to use.
- Zotero Zotero is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources.