Citation Guides for Writing Papers

About Citation

Citation is a way of acknowledging your sources of information through a combination of references and a list of works cited. In academic writing, citation must be done according to a particular style that is deemed appropriate to the field. While there are many such styles, the three most common are APA (American Psychological Association), MLA (Modern Language Association), and Turabian (based on the Chicago Manual of Style). On this page, we provide links to help you understand and use these styles. These links should answer most citation questions, but you may need to consult the fuller treatment found in the printed books, which can be found in the reference section of the Emerson and Luhr libraries and in most public and academic libraries.

The records in our online databases contain the information you need to cite a work properly. Click here to find out how to read a citation in a database. See our section on Citing Our Online/Full-text Databases for more information.

Individual instructors may have specific requirements for citation style, and nothing on these pages is intended to replace such instructions. Ask your instructor if you are in doubt about a particular requirement.

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Brief Checklists & Examples for APA, MLA, Chicago and Turabian

For basic instruction in citation, start with one of these guides. They provide specific examples of how to cite the most common print and online sources.

Research and Documentation Online

http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/

Diana Hacker's companion Web site to A Writer's Reference provides information on documenting sources and a sample paper in each style format based on your discipline of study: Humanities: MLA (also Chicago), Social Sciences: APA, and Sciences: CSE.

Style Sheets for Citing Resources

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/instruct/guides/citations.html

This page explains the basics of citation and has links to clear and concise guides (in PDF format) for APA, MLA and Turabian citation styles.

Webster University Writing Center

http://www.webster.edu/acadaffairs/asp/wc/tips.html

This page explains how to avoid plagiarism, when to cite a source, and has links to guides for APA and MLA styles.

APA Formatting and Style (Purdue Online Writing Lab)

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

MLA Formatting and Style (Purdue Online Writing Lab)

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/

Turabian Style at University of Georgia Libraries

http://www.libs.uga.edu/ref/turabian.html

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Citing Online Sources

Citation style was created long before computers and the internet, and figuring out the appropriate style for citing electronic sources has proved to be an ongoing challenge for the creators of standards for citation. The following web pages may be helpful if you have further questions about citing online sources.

APA Style Guide to Electronic Resources

APA guidelines for citing online sources. (Webster/Eden access only) Note: If you are using Acrobat 6.0 and have difficulty viewing the file, open Acrobat 6.0 and try the following: Edit--> Preferences--> Internet--> Uncheck PDF in browser.

Online!

http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/citex.html

Extensive excerpts and all the links from the book by Andrew Harnack and Eugene Kleppinger.

Sources

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sources/contents.html

This Web site at Dartmouth offers advice on citing print and electronic sources accurately and appropriately.

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Citing Articles From Our Online/Full-text Databases

If you use one of the library's databases to retrieve the full-text of an article, your cite will need to be a combination of both the periodical and a Web site citation. Since electronic full-text versions of articles are not always identical to the printed periodical, it is important to indicate which version you have seen and where. For example, the APA style bibliographic citation for an article from an EbscoHost database, Academic Search Premier, would look like this:

Note: Style formats change frequently! Always refer to the most recent edition of the style manual you're using before citing your sources.

You are usually required to include a URL or Internet address for each online item you list in your bibliography. This is often a problem for materials you get from electronic databases (e.g. Ebscohost, Lexis-Nexis Academic, etc.) because the URLs of the individual articles tend to be quite lengthy and can be different each time you access the article. Instead, you should use the URL for the database provider's website. The URL for each database can be found on our Alphabetical List of Databases page.

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The Official Print Guidelines

The preceding links should answer most citation questions, but you may need to consult the fuller treatment found in the printed books. These can be found in the reference section of the Emerson library and in most public and academic libraries.

AMA

American Medical Association Manual of Style

9th ed. Baltimore : Williams & Wilkins, c1998.

Emerson Library Call Number: R 119 .A533 1998. Click call number to see if a copy is available for checkout.

APA

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association

5th ed. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. 2001.

Emerson & Luhr Libraries Call Number: BF 76.7 .P83 2001. Click call number to see if a copy is available for checkout.

The Chicago Manual of Style

15th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003

Emerson & Luhr Libraries Call Number: Z 253 .U69 2003. Click call number to see if a copy is available for checkout.

MLA

Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.

6th ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2003.

Emerson & Luhr Libraries Call Number: LB 2369 .G53 2003. Click call number to see if a copy is available for checkout.

Turabian

Turabian, Kate L., revised by Wayne C. Booth et. al. (2007). A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers.

7th ed. Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 2007

Emerson & Luhr Libraries Call Number: LB 2369 .T8 2007. Click call number to see if a copy is available for checkout.