How to Cite

Guide Note: Knowing when and how to cite your sources is an important skill for any student, scholar or academic. Whether you're working in the humanities, the social sciences or the hard sciences, proper citations are an essential part of any well-written research paper. If you're unsure about which style of citation to use (and how to format your citations), follow the steps in this guide for How to Cite.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

Creative Commons photo by The Master Shake Signal
Creative Commons photo by The Master Shake Signal
  • When writing a research paper, essay, or other type of academic work, it is usually required for you to cite all of the outside sources that you used when writing it. Whether it's a description of a specific idea or theory or the direct use of a quote from a previously published work, citations are an important way to give credit to the original source - and also to avoid charges of plagiarism. While the use of citations is nearly universal, the ways in which citations are written and compiled can differ drastically depending on the type of paper you are writing and the academic discipline you are writing for. The information below is designed to help you understand when and how to cite your sources.

When to Cite

  • There is often confusion among students as to when they should use a citation. And while different disciplines may have different rules regarding when citations should be used, there are a few general rules that you can follow:
    1. When using a direct quote from a previously published work.
    2. When paraphrasing an idea or theory found in a previously published work.
    3. When referring to a previously published work (or the ideas expressed in it).
    4. When using a previously published work to help formulate your own ideas.
    5. When in doubt, cite it!

If you're uncertain about which style of citation to use, always be sure to talk to your professor, advisor or other teacher before starting your paper.

MLA Style

  • The Modern Language Association or "MLA" is a professional organization that represents scholars, professors and graduate students in the general field of the Humanities (English, Comparative Literature, Modern Languages, etc). The MLA publishes a style manual that provides guidelines on the proper citation methods for research papers in this field. Here is a brief description of the MLA citation style:

Citations in the Text

  • In the MLA style, works that are being cited must have a brief parenthetical reference to the source directly in the text of the paper. This serves to identify the source of an idea or statement as well as point them to the Works Cited List where they can find more detailed information on that source. Here are some general guidelines regarding citing a source within the text:
    1. Always use parentheses () around your citation information.
    2. Place the citation as close to the material you are citing as possible.
    3. If you're putting the citation at the end of a sentence, it should always be placed before the period.
    4. Use the most basic information necessary to identify your source. The author's last name and the pages of the text you are referencing are usually sufficient.
  • Examples:
    • When referring to an author's work:
      • Naked Lunch has been described as a perfect example of Post-Modern literature (Bernard 25-26).
    • When using an author's name:
      • Bernard says that Naked Lunch is a perfect example of Post-Modern literature (25-26).
    • When a work has multiple authors:
      • Post-Modern literature has been described as a reaction to Modernism (Williams and Blake 78).
    • When citing two different works:
      • Modernism's decline coincided with World War II and the rise of Post-Modernism (Smith 45, Walsh 122).
    • When referencing a specific volume:
      • The specific qualities of Post-Modernism are often hard to define (Cheng 2:25-26)
    • More examples

Works Cited List

CC photo by Alexandre Duret-Lutz
CC photo by Alexandre Duret-Lutz
  • The Works Cited List (as its name suggests) is basically a list of all of the works that you have cited in your text. Readers of your work can refer to this list when looking to get further information on the sources you have used. In general, each entry in the Works Cited List should include the following, this order:
    1. The author(s) or editor(s) of the book, essay or article
    2. The complete title of the work
    3. The Publication title (for articles and periodicals only)
    4. The Volume number (for articles and periodicals only)
    5. The edition (if applicable)
    6. The place where it was published (for books)
    7. The publisher (for books)
    8. The date it was published
    9. The specific pages referenced (if applicable)
  • Examples:
    • When a work has one author:
      • Kerouac, Jack. On the Road. 2nd ed. New York: Penguin, 1968. 35-36.
    • When a work has two authors:
      • Collins, Bob, and Joe Franklin. The Beat Generation. Chicago: Bantam, 1992. 125.
    • When a work has more than three authors:
      • Williams, Smith, et al. Following the Beats. San Francisco: City Lights, 1978.
    • When citing multiple works by one author:
      • Scott, Gerald D. Kerouac: A Life Uncovered. New York: Oxford UP, 1980.
      • ---. San Francisco in the Sixties. New York: Oxford UP, 1986.
    • When citing a magazine or journal article:
      • Reed, Sally. "Jack Kerouac and the Poetry of the Beats." Poetry Today 10.2 (2002): 167-178.
    • More examples
  • Here are some general rules regarding how your Works Cited List should be arranged:
    1. Your Works Cited List should be on a separate page at the end of your paper.
    2. The page should be titled Works Cited - which should be centered at the top of the page.
    3. Use the same sized margins as the rest of your paper and be sure to include a page number.
    4. The entries should be arranged in alphabetical order (using the author's last name)
    5. All citations should be double-spaced (if necessary), although there should be no spaces in between citations.
    6. If one of the entries is longer than one line, the second line should have a hanging indent.

APA Style

  • Academics and scholars that work in the social sciences are usually required to use the APA Style of citation when giving credit to their source material in research papers. Compiled by the American Psychological Association, the APA publication manual sets out guidelines for how to properly reference outside works that have been used in the writing of a paper.

Parenthetical Citations

  • Parenthetical citations are similar to the In-Text citations that are used in the MLA style in that they are featured directly within the text of the paper, although there are some slight differences as to how they are written. Here are a few guidelines for parenthetical citations in the APA style:
    1. Always use parentheses () around your citation information.
    2. The basic information that you need to include in your citation is the author's name, the date the work was published, and the pages that are being referenced.
    3. For direct quotes, all of this information should be included together at the end of the quote.
    4. When paraphrasing, include the publication date next to the author's name - and the page reference at the end of the sentence.
    5. When a work has more than one author, use an ampersand (&) between their surnames.
  • Examples:
    • When quoting directly from an author's work:
      • Patients who consider themselves happy are "20% more likely to respond well to chemotherapy" (Johnson, 1998, p. 28).
    • When a work has multiple authors:
      • Overall, studies found a direct correlation between the two groups (Brown & Smith, 1988, p. 26).
    • When paraphrasing an author's work:
      • Johnson (1998) concludes that a happy patient is a healthy patient (p. 28).
    • When citing an electronic source without a page number:
      • "Patients have shown a surprising amount of resiliency" (Kelly, 2004, ΒΆ 3)

Reference Page

The Internet can be a great resource for information on citations (Creative Commons photo by Happy Bushra)
The Internet can be a great resource for information on citations (Creative Commons photo by Happy Bushra)
  • The references page is similar to the Works Cited List in the MLA format in that it is basically a list of all of the sources you've used in the writing of your paper, although with a few variations in formatting and style. Each entry in the references section should include the following:
    1. The author(s) or editor(s) - with surname first
    2. The date of publication
    3. The complete title of the work (italicized)
    4. The edition (if applicable)
    5. The publication title (for articles and periodicals only)
    6. The volume number (for articles and periodicals only)
    7. The specific pages referenced (if applicable)
    8. The place where it was published (for books)
    9. The publisher (for books)
  • Examples:
    • When a work has one author:
      • Johnson, F. (1992). The plight of the working class. New York: Oxford UP.
    • When a work has two authors:
      • Smith, S., & Brown, B. (1978). A complete guide to Shakespeare (3rd ed.) Denver: Bantam.
    • When a work has more than six authors:
      • Brown, C., Johnson, M., Smith, B., Fredricks, J., Harris, B., Kaufman, J., Lassen, B., et al. (2000). How many authors does it take? San Francisco: Putnam.
    • When citing multiple works by one author:
      • Johnson, A. (1967) Alphabet soup. New York: Viking.
      • Johnson, A. (1963) Basic writing lessons. New York: Oxford UP.
    • When citing a magazine or journal article:
      • Chung, J. (1999). Round and round: An annotated history of the wheel. Popular Mechanics, 26, 36-38.
    • More examples
  • Here are the basic guidelines for compiling your references page:
    1. The reference page should be located on a separate page at the end of your paper.
    2. The title References should be centered at the top of the page.
    3. The entire references page should be double-spaced.
    4. The entries should be arranged in alphabetical order (using the author's last name).
    5. If one of the entries is longer than one line, the second line should have a hanging indent.
    6. The authors should written with their last name followed by their first initial.
    7. Titles should be italicized.

Chicago Style

Author-Date System

  • The Author-Date system is similar to the MLA style in which the citations are broken up into In-Text citations and a References list. This style is most commonly used by writers in the social sciences, although there is no hard and fast rule that says they have to. Here is a brief description of how to use the Author-Date system:
  • Text Citations: The text citations that are used in the Author-Date system are nearly identical to those used in the MLA style:
    1. Always use parentheses () around your citation information.
    2. Include the author's last name and the date of publication.
    3. No punctuation between the name and date.
  • Examples:
  • Reference List: Just like the other bibliographies discussed on this page, the Reference List is a collection of all of the works that have been cited in the paper. The entries in the references list should include the following:
    1. The author(s) or editor(s) of the book, essay or article
    2. The date the work was published
    3. The complete title of the work (italicized)
    4. The Publication title (for articles and periodicals only)
    5. The Volume number (for articles and periodicals only)
    6. The edition (if applicable)
    7. The place where it was published
    8. The publisher
    9. The specific pages referenced (if applicable)
  • Examples:
    • When a work has one author:
      • Bradley, Geoff. 2002. How I learned to stop worrying and love cheese. Chicago: Chicago Press.
    • When a work has two authors:
      • Kettler, Sara and Andrew Marcus. 2008. How to write a how to. Los Angeles: Mahalo Press.
    • When citing a magazine article or journal:
      • Brown, Evan Michael. 2007. How to write a love song. Songwriter Weekly 26: 57-58.

Documentary Note Style

  • The citation style that is most closely associated with the Chicago style (and the one that varies the most from the previous styles we've discussed) is the Documentary Note (or Humanities Style) of citation. In this style, footnotes are used throughout the paper in order to identify citations (rather than the In-text citations that other styles use). Like the Author-Date system, the Documentary Note style also includes a bibliography at the end of the paper that compiles all of the citations that were used in the paper.
  • Footnotes: Each footnote that is used throughout your paper should include both a superscript number [1] next to the passage being cited, and a corresponding note at the bottom of the page that includes more detailed citation information.
    • The superscript number should be used as following:
      • Research suggests that a solution is imminent.[2] Whether or not this is true is yet to be seen.
    • The corresponding footnote at the bottom of the page should then be as follows:
      • 2. Bobby Gordon, Whose got the solution? (New York: Oxford UP, 2004), 67.
  • Here are few rules regarding footnotes:
    1. The superscript numbers should be listed sequentially.
    2. If you've already cited a source once, you can shorten the footnote for any following citations.
    3. The number that begins the footnote should be regular sized.
  • Examples:
    • When a work has one author:
      • 1. Bob Thomas, The shape of things to come: A Prediction (Los Angeles: Kirkus, 2007), 29.
    • When a work has two authors:
      • 2. John Porter and Michael Gallagher, A tale of two video editors (London: Oxford, 2008), 68.
    • When citing a magazine or journal article:
      • 3. Nicole Gustas, "How to propose," Mahalo Daily 28, (1999):339.
    • When citing an edited book:
      • 4. Jason Calacanis, ed., Taurus & Fondue: A tale of two bulldogs (Los Angeles: Taurus Press, 2008), 25 - 30.
    • When citing an online article or resource:
      • 5. C.K. Sample, "I've read more books than you," Sample the Web, February 20, 2007, 29, http://www.sampletheweb.com/.
  • Bibliography: The bibliography section that is used in the Documentary Note style is nearly identical to the Reference List section in the Author-Date system. The only major difference is that the publication date comes at the end of each bibliography entry (in the Documentary style bibliography) instead of directly after the author (as in the Author-Date system). Here are a couple of examples:
  • Examples:
    • When a work has one author:
      • Lodge, Michael. A Limey in LA. London: Pembridge Press, 2004.
    • When a work has two authors:
      • Kasparov, Gary, and Bobby Fischer. Chess for dummies, dummy!. Florida: Checkmate Press, 2008.
    • More examples

Other Styles

Online Citation Services

Conclusion

  • Although citing sources can often be a tedious and time-consuming process, it is one that is essential for making your research paper authoritative, accurate and compelling. Besides giving credit to the original authors, proper citations can also help to differentiate between other people's work and your original ideas. And while you may not be an expert (yet) in your particular field, the use of citations from well-known scholars and academics can help serve to strengthen your paper and improve the persuasiveness of your arguments. So take the time to accurately cite your work. It'll help improve your research paper...and your grade!

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