4.4 Citations and Style Guides

It is important to give credit to any scholar or author whose work you have used in writing your paper. In-text citation and footnoting are techniques for doing this within the body of your paper. Reference lists (bibliographies) at the end of your paper give more details on the resources you have used. Several standard "styles" (e.g., MLA, APA, Chicago) have been developed for organizing this information, and your instructor will probably specify which is expected for your paper.

Each style has exact rules about the format, the order, and the punctuation of each citation. Even the allowed or required abbreviations are specified. This is in the interest of brevity, since you can omit repetitive labels for various details so long as you are following the rules.

The following details about each source will be given in a citation in most styles. Different kinds of material may be treated a little differently, so you should check the appropriate manual for specifics. The following will cover most sources in most styles:

• Name of the author or authors, if available.
• Title of a book or article.
• Publication or Source information.

     For a book: the place of publication, the name of
     the publisher, and the date of publication.

     For a journal article: the name of the journal, the date of
     publication, and the volume, issue, and page numbers.

• When the source is used in electronic format, then you need to include information about your access to the source, including date of access and the virtual location of the source.

Again you need to consult with your instructor and the style manual for exact details and for variations. Link below to examples of commonly used resources:

Citations, Style, & Writing Guides