Cite Your Sources  

The following are good web resources to help you learn citation formatting and to view citation examples.

A citation gives credit to the original author(s) of a work being referenced.  Citations also allow people who are reading your work to be able to find the original sources of information you used.  Basic citations for a book, for example, include the name(s) of author(s) or editor(s), the title of the book, the publisher's name, the place of publication, and the most recent copyright year.

There are a number of styles that can be used to construct citations.  Each style specifies the necessary information to be included in the citation, the order of the information, and the punctuation and other formatting used.  This guide provides help in creating citations in the following styles:

• American Psychological Association (APA) 
• Modern Language Association (MLA)
• Chicago Manual of Style 

Please note: Your instructor may require a particular style so make sure to ask which style before your begin your research.  If no particular style is specified, choose a style you are comfortable with and be consistent with that style throughout your work.

You may also be interested in this video explaining how to use Microsoft 2010 to add references to your work.  Directions are shown using APA style, but the style can be easily changed using the style dropdown button under the References tab. Please note that the introduction music is much louder than the tutorial itself. (Video from innovativeteach)

A bibliographic citation, the convention normally used to acknowledge a work quoted in a paper, contains basic information needed to locate an item. There are different formats for citing books, journal articles, chapters in books, dissertations, pamphlets, videocassettes, and many other formats. For the purpose of the exercise, we are going to focus on books, journal articles and book chapters.

BOOKS

In general, the publication information, including place of publication, publisher and year, identifies a book (or part of a book).

PERIODICAL ARTICLES

In general, the publication information, including volume number, date and page numbers, identifies a journal article.

BOOK CHAPTER

Chapters of books can be identified by the presence of two titles, the title of the chapter and the title of the book. Two names may be listed as well -- the author of the chapter and the editor. The same publication information that appears in a book citation will also appear here: place of publication,publisher, and year.

Portions of the content in this guide were adapted/borrowed from Laura Barrett at the Dartmouth College Library.