Formatting & Citations
Three Academic Citation Styles You Will Often Encounter

If your instructor does not specify a specific citation style or guideline, you have the freedom to choose a citation style that you are comfortable with. If you are familiar with one of the three styles below, follow that style guide closely.

If not, choose one of the styles below that appeals to you and check out the links for more info. You are likely to encounter these three styles (APA, Chicago, and MLA) frequently during your student career, but the good news is that nobody has to memorize citations and formatting guidelines. You can always keep handy links and resources like these available as you work on papers.

What matters is that you always follow the citation style that your instructors require for different classes, assignments, or situations.

What's up with Citations?

What's the big deal about citations, and why do students have to provide them anyway? A lot of times students may see citations as just an extra chore on top of the already daunting task of writing a paper. But there are two pretty good reasons why writers credit their sources:

1.) To give credit to original sources of the information used.
2.) To provide readers the information needed to find the same sources if they wish.

Citations are the on-ramps to the research superhighway. In-text citations lead readers to full reference citations, which help readers find original sources in libraries and databases.

Providing standardized citation formats connects your ideas to a larger body of knowledge, helping scholars and students further explore that subject. Using citations links us together as an academic and professional community, which is a very good thing in the long run because it means there are more ideas to explore, challenge, adapt, and grow.

Here are the three most common citations you will encounter in your college career:

APA:

The American Psychological Association (APA) provides standards for formatting articles for publication and consistently citing sources via in-text citations and a references list. You will most commonly use APA for research papers in psychology classes and other social sciences; however, many professors may ask for APA style papers across a wide variety of disciplines.

Check out the following lessons for more in-depth overviews of APA conventions:

Chicago:

Chicago Style citations are most often used in history and art papers, but may be found in other courses as well. In Chicago, the quotations need to be cited using footnotes, and the sources the quotations originate from must be listed in the bibliography (which is much like the references page in APA.)

Check out the following resources for more in-depth overviews on Chicago Style Citations:

Brief Guide to the Chicago Style (16th)
http://polaris.umuc.edu/ewc/web/chicago_intro.html
http://polaris.umuc.edu/ewc/pdfs/chicago_intro.pdf

Chicago Style (16th) and the Bedford Bibliographer
http://polaris.umuc.edu/ewc/web/chicago_bedford.html
http://polaris.umuc.edu/ewc/pdfs/chicago_bedford.pdf

Manuscript Formatting for Chicago Style (16th)
http://polaris.umuc.edu/ewc/web/chicago_manuscript.html
http://polaris.umuc.edu/ewc/pdfs/chicago_manuscript.pdf

MLA:

English and literature papers often use MLA style, but this style will be found in a variety of other humanities classes as well. An MLA paper needs in-text citations and a properly formatted Works Cited page (the references page’s name in MLA).

Check out the following lesson for a more in-depth overviews on MLA citations and formatting:

MLA Seventh Edition Document Formatting
http://polaris.umuc.edu/ewc/web/mla7.html
http://polaris.umuc.edu/ewc/pdfs/mla7.pdf

If there's an exception, rule, or clarification you'd like to know more about with regards to any of the citation styles above please ask a question in response to this thread. You may also post practice in-text or reference page citations for feedback. Just be sure to let me know what citation style you have chosen to use for this paper. :)

Citation Machines:

Today there are a variety of citation machines on the web that will take the source information you provide, then produce a reference citation in the style you specify. After evaluation of these products, the Effective Writing Center recommends the Bedford Bibliographer. Unlike other citation machines, the Bedford allows you to store you work indefinitely on its site, download a Microsoft Word document of your sources documented in the style of your choice, and add annotations to any source. Here is a video demonstrating its use:

Remember that you can always email the Effective Writing Center directly with a quick question and receive a respond within 24-48 hours:

writingcenter@umuc.edu

Formatting & Citations Three Academic Citation Styles You Will Often Encounter

APA:

Chicago:

MLA:

Citation Machines:

Formatting & Citations
Three Academic Citation Styles You Will Often Encounter