6.4 Citation & Documentation Basics

APA, MLA, and Chicago

The Basics of Citing and Documenting Source Material

Research papers at the college level (and some workplace documents) require some kind of documentation style. Documentation styles provide students, teachers, and researchers standards and specifications to follow for paper set up, in-text documentation, and references. They also have recommendations for writing style, word choice, and, in some cases, organization.

The most common documentation styles are APA (from the American Psychological Association), MLA (from the Modern Language Association), Chicago-Style (from the University of Chicago Press), and IEEE (from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). Listed at the bottom of this page are links to guides for each of these styles.

While it may feel tedious learning the different aspects of a documentation style, it’s important to remember that following style guidelines helps add credibility to your writing by providing you with a structured method for sharing your research with your audience.

Watch this short video, “What is Citing?,” from Cathy Cox at the College of the Redwoods to learn what citing is, when, where, and how to cite, and why it’s important:

 

What Information Do You Need to Cite Your Sources?

The following is a general list of information needed to create a complete citation in your References or Works Cited page. Depending on the citation style you are using, different information may be required for each of these sources, so be sure to check the comprehensive style guides provided by the Purdue Online Writing Lab on APA, MLA, Chicago, and IEEE citation styles. Be sure to also check with your instructor, your workplace, or your writing team leader to confirm which style(s) you are required (or permitted) to use.

FOR BOOKS

      • Author(s)
      • Editors/translators
      • Edition (if not first)
      • Name, date, and city of publication/publisher

FOR ARTICLES

      • Author(s)
      • Title and Subtitle
      • Name of source (magazine, journal, newspaper, etc.)
      • Date of publication
      • Volume, issue, and page numbers

*If retrieved from a database, also…

      • Name of database
      • Name of subscription service
      • URL of database
      • DOI (Digital Object Identifier)
      • Date source retrieved

FOR THE WEB

      • Author(s)
      • Editors/Creators
      • Title of source
      • Title of site
      • Publication information
      • Date of publication or latest update
      • Site sponsor
      • Date source accessed
      • Source URL

Formatting Your List of Sources

Different citation styles use various terms to introduce their list of references, such as Bibliography for APA and Chicago styles , Works Cited for MLA style, and References (or Cited References) for IEEE style. Again, be sure to refer to the style guides

Generally speaking, on a separate page at the end of your paper, add a list of all the sources you have cited in your paper. For some styles, the list is in the order you have cited them, while in others, the list is in alphabetical order using the author’s last name or the source title if no author information is listed. Each reference must provide thorough and complete documentation so that readers can identify the kind of source, and retrieve it if they want to read it. It is important to use the correct conventions for each type of source, as readers familiar with academic conventions will expect this, and they will be able to tell what kinds of sources you are referencing based on what information is included and how it is formatted. If you use conventions incorrectly (such as failing to italicize or use quotation marks around titles to indicate what kind of source it is), you can confuse or even mislead your readers.

In addition to the Purdue OWL sites listed at the top of this section, you can view samples of MLA and APA citations from the OpenOregon OER textbook About Writing: A Guide:

 

Luckily, you do not need to memorize citation style formats. Below are some excellent online guides and tools that will help you cite sources correctly—additionally, you can always ask your instructor or a librarian for help if you have a question or a difficult source to cite:

      • Citation Builder: An automated form for creating citations from the University of North Carolina. Here you can choose the style and enter the source information, and it will generate a citation. As noted above, it’s always a good idea to double check these for errors or formatting inconsistencies.
      • Zotero: A sophisticated research management tool developed at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. You can use it to save and organize your sources and create citations. As a more sophisticated tool, it requires a little more time and effort to learn, but the time is worth it when you’re researching and writing a lot.

Here are three additional free online bibliography generators:

NOTE: If you use citation software or generators to create your list of references, be sure to review each reference that it generates for any errors or formatting inconsistencies. These programs and sites are not foolproof. For example, sometimes auto-generators will give a title in ALL CAPS instead of being italicized or put in quotation marks, so you would want to revise this. They usually do not give DOIs, so you may have to add these. Remember, it is up to you to make sure your references conform to your chosen style’s conventions.

 

Check out “Giving Credit Where Credit is Due,” a video by Joyce Bower on citing your research:


 

Take the following quiz to test your knowledge of using and citing research:

 

Chapter 6 Assignment: Annotated Bibliography

 

Additional Resources

For even more information on citation styles, check out these open textbook guides from Kwantlen Polytechnic University:











CHAPTER ATTRIBUTION


"Citation & Documentation." OER Commons Excelsior Online Writing Lab. [License: CC BY 4.0]
Cox, Cathy. "What is Citing?" Video. Uploaded by SCCCLibrary. 16 Apr. 2016. Youtube.com.
Last, Susan. Technical Writing Essentials. "6.1 Frequently Asked Questions." [License: CC BY 4.0]













					
		
					

						

							
							

								
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TPW: Technical & Professional Writing Copyright © 2023 by Will Fleming is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.