Citing Sources

There are three predominant styles for preparing a bibliography and citing sources. Check with your professor to find out their preferred style.

MLA

MLA (Modern Language Association) citation style is used for the arts and humanities.

APA

APA (American Psychological Association) citation style is used for the sciences and social sciences.

Chicago

Chicago (Chicago Manual of Style) citation style is used for art history and other humanities.

General Guidelines

  • Each source cited in your paper must appear in your bibliography; each entry in the bibliography must be cited in your paper.
  • Alphabetize the entire bibliography by the first word of the citation, which is usually the author's last name; if no author is given, start with the title.  Ignore "A," "An," and "The" while alphabetizing.
  • Single space within each citation; skip a line between each citation.
  • Do not indent the first line of a citation, but indent all lines to follow (hanging indent).
  • Follow exact format carefully; all punctuation must be correct.

Useful Tools

Paraphrasing, summarizing and quoting are three methods of referring to work done by other people that are useful in completing your paper.  Using your own words (paraphrasing), recapping the author's words (summarizing) or using the same words as the author with quotation marks (quoting) AND including the citations are three tools in avoiding plagiarism.  The websites below provide assistance for writing in your own words and for appropriately incorporating the ideas of other authors.

  • The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University is a comprehensive guide for students and instructors consisting of resources and tutorials to assist in the proper methods of the writing process. 
  • Bridgewater College in Virginia also provides and Online Writing Center with resources for students.
  • The University of Toronto provides a series of writing handouts through their College Writing Workshop.
  • Ohio State University hosts a guide for Biology In-text Citation with information on how to cite a number of different types of sources for papers in the sciences.