Citing your sources

  • MLA Format
  • APA Format
  • Chicago Style
  • Annotated Bibliography/Works Cited

Formatting your Works Cited (MLA)

  • All sources that you used to get information for your paper must be included in your works cited.
  • Alphabetical order
  • Double-spaced
  • Hanging indent (first line is on the left margin and every other line in the entry is indented). The shortcut to do this in Microsoft Word is to select the whole citation and then press Ctrl and T together.

Electronic citation makers to help create your works cited (MLA)

  1. EasyBib : Select TYPE of source (e.g. website, book, etc) and then either: (1) enter the website address or book ISBN to see if some information can be automatically entered for you. Fill in the rest of the information in the boxes provided; OR (2) click manual entry (just above the green Cite This button) and fill in the information yourself. Handy pop up boxes help explain each box to fill in.
  1. Citation Maker: Choose the TYPE of source (e.g. website, book, etc.) from the right side of the page.

In-text/parenthetical references (MLA)

Why use them? To indicate that you’re using someone else’s words or ideas.

When do you not need them? When using facts that are common knowledge or popular sayings

What do you include in the reference? Author and page (Smith 119). If you use the author’s name in the sentence, you do not need to repeat it in the parentheses.

No page number: leave it out.

No author: use enough words from the title to make it clear which source you are using. Remember to use ” ” for an article title and italicize book or website titles.

2-3 authors: (James, Smith & Ryerson 199).

4+ authors: cite only the first author and “et al.” — (Castaldo et al. 409).

Where do you put them? Directly after the fact or quote you got from the source. If you have paraphrased several pieces of information from one source in one paragraph and no other sources were used in that paragraph, you can put one parenthetical reference at the end of the paragraph.

Helpful tools for MLA format

APA is one of the many styles of referencing/citing. It is often used in science and psych/soc/anthro courses. In this section of the website, you can learn about:

  • Formatting your Reference List (APA)
  • Electonic citation/reference makers
  • Examples
    • Book example
    • Article from a reference book example (e.g. encyclopedia or multi-volume set)
    • Magazine/newspaper article from an online database example
    • Website example
  • In-text/parenthetical references (APA)
  • Helpful tools for APA format

Formatting your Reference List (APA)

  • The TITLE you give this page is: References. It is called Works Cited in the MLA style.
  • All sources that you used to get information for your paper must be included in your works cited.
  • Alphabetical order
  • Hanging indent (first line is on the left margin and every other line in the entry is indented). The shortcut to do this in Microsoft Word is to select the whole citation and then press Ctrl and T together.

Electronic citation/reference makers

  1. Bibme.org (APA): You can register and save your citations. Remember to make sure you are using the APA format, not MLA!
  2. Citation Maker (APA): Choose the TYPE of source (e.g. website, book, etc.) from the right side of the page. Then, simply fill in the blanks!

Examples of APA citations

Book
NOTE: Not every word in the title is capitalized. Only the first word of the title, the first word of the subtitle and any proper nouns are capitalized.

Author’s last name, First initial. (Year of publication (if no year write

n.d.)). Title of book: Subtitle. City: Publisher.

McHughen, A. (2000). Pandora’s picnic basket: The potential and

hazards of genetically modified foods. Oxford, UK: Oxford University

Press.

In-text citation would be: (McHughen, 2000)
Article from a paper Reference Book
(e.g. encyclopedia or multivolume set)
NOTE: Not every word in the title is capitalized. Only the first word of the title, the first word of the subtitle and any proper nouns are capitalized.

Article author’s last name (if given), First initial. (Year of publication (n.d. if no

year listed)). Article title. In Editor of reference book’s first initials and

last name (Ed. (or Eds. if more than one)), Title of book (edition,

volume, pages). City: Publisher.

Frame, D., & Costim, K. (2004). Global warming. In R. Stapleton (Ed.), Pollution a

to z (2nd ed., Vol. 1, pp. 224-229). New York: ThomsonGale.

In-text citation would be: (Frame & Costim, 2004)
Magazine/Newspaper article from online database
TIP: Many databases will create an APA style citation for you. Look for a link that says “Citation Tools” or “Citation” and then select APA. It will open in a new window and all you have to do is copy and paste it.

BEWARE: If there is a citation at the bottom of an article in a database, it is almost always in MLA format. Use the TIP above to create an APA citation quickly.

CAPITALIZATION: For the ARTICLE title, only capitalize the first word, any proper nouns, and the first subtitle word. For the title of the MAGAZINE or NEWSPAPER, capitalize all the major words (but not words like: of, and)

PAGE NUMBERS: You put p. (for one page) or pp. (for multiple pages) before page numbers for newspaper articles but NOT for magazines and other periodicals.

Article author (if given) Last name, First initial. (Year of publication, Month day

(n.d. if no date given). Article title. Magazine/Newspaper Name,

volume number(issue number if available), page if available [p./pp. if it’s a newspaper article].

Retrieved from Database Name.

Rader, B.R, Boldt, P, & Pierce, V. (2005, August 18). The end of the world as we

know it. Alternatives, 19(2), D189-200. Retrieved from Canadian

Points of View.

**NOTE: This is a magazine so don’t write pp. before the page numbers**

In-text citation would be: (Rader, Boldt, & Pierce, 2005).

If you include the URL, CUT it off after ?id=[whatever the database title/provider is] and you don’t need to include the name of the database separately:

Lattman, P., & Singer, N. (2012, February 3). Army studies workout supplements

after deaths. New York Times, p. B1(L). Retrieved from

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE

**NOTE: This is a newspaper article so include p. before the page number**

In-text citation would be: (Lattman & Singer, 2012)

No author:

Earlier birds. (2007, Dec/Jan). Canadian Geographic, 8(3), 14. Retrieved from

InfoTrac OneFile.

In-text citation would be: (“Earlier birds,” 2007).

NOTE: quotation marks are used in the in-text citation, but they are not used in the works cited citation
Websites
If you are referencing the website as a whole:

Title of website. (Publication Date (n.d. if no date listed)). Author’s first initial Last

name. Retrieved date from URL

Al Gore.com: The official website of Al Gore. (2007). Retrieved December 11,

2007 from http://www.algore.com/

In-text citation would be: (Al Gore.com, 2007)

If you are referencing a particular webpage or article from the website:

Author last name, first initial. (Publication Date (n.d. if no date listed)). Title of

web page. Retrieved date [only if webpage might not be there for a

long time], from website name [only if website’s name would not be

clear from URL]: URL

de Vrie, K. (n.d.). Pretending to be alone with Michael Jackson. Retrieved from

Classical psychology notes website: http://ourworld.compuserve.com

In-text citation would be: (de Vries, n.d.)

Doiron, S. (n.d.). Teaching kindergarten in French. Retrieved February 3, 2012,

from http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/

In-text citation would be: (Doiron, n.d.)

No author:

New child vaccine gets funding boost. (2001). Retrieved March 21, 2001, from

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/health/story_13178.asp

In-text citation would be: (“New child vaccine,” 2001).

NOTE: quotation marks are used in the in-text citation, but they are not used in the works cited citation

To see other specific examples of what citations look like, see the Helpful Tools links below.

In-text/parenthetical references (APA)

Why use them? To indicate that you’re using someone else’s words or ideas.

When do you not need them? When using facts that are common knowledge or popular sayings

Where do you put them? Directly after the fact or quote you got from the source. If you have paraphrased several pieces of information from one source in one paragraph and no other sources were used in that paragraph, you can put one parenthetical reference at the end of the paragraph.

What do you include in the reference?

Author, year (Beauchamp, 2009).

NOTE: If you use a quote, you include the author, year and page number (if there is one). E.g. “This is my quote” (Costa, 2004, p.51).

If two authors: (Smith & Medina, 2010). Other rules apply for 3+ authors.

If you use the author’s name in the sentence, you do not need to repeat it in the parentheses. Put the year right after the author: According to Beauchamp (2009), the real problem was how to deal with the rapid influx of immigrants.

If there is no author, use enough words from the title to make it clear which source you are using. Remember to use ” ” for the title of an article, chapter or webpage and italics for the titles of books or reports.

Helpful tools for APA format

Check out the Chicago Manual of Style online

For more help with the Chicago style of referencing:

What is it? An annotated bibliography (or annotated works cited) is a list of citations and explanatory notes for the sources you used. After each citation you include a few sentences providing additional information about that source.
Steps:

    1. Start by making a citation for your source in whatever style required (MLA, APA, Chicago) – see the sections above on MLA and APA to get help making your citations.
    2. Add the annotation which may be 3-5 sentences or longer depending on your particular assignment.

What goes in the annotation? The information you need to include depends on your particular assignment – you may need to summarize the source, or explain the source’s relevance to your research, or evaluate whether the source is good/useful, etc.

More information on annotated bibliographies: Use the toolbar on the left side of that webpage to see examples and a sample annotated bibliography.

Sample annotated bibliographies are available for MLA, APA and Chicago style formatting. The samples on this webpage are all written for different purposes. READ the descriptions to find a relevant example for your own project!