Citation Guides

APA Citation Guide

The APA stands for the American Psychological Association and is most often used for citing sources in the social sciences. Its style is unique, designed to make it easier to find the sources used in any text. The style was first created in 1929, and the latest revision was in 2009. The creation of this citation method ensures that bias is minimized in word choice while writing, making scientific papers unbiased and based solely on facts. This short guide was prepared by the experts of the essay writing service LiaHelp.com.

APA Basics: Quick Guide

Book

Structure: Last, F. M. (Year Published). Book. City, State: Publisher.

Example: Pegrum, M. (2009). From blogs to bombs: The future of electronic technologies in education. Crawley, W.A: UWA Publishing.

Chapter/Anthology

Structure: Last, F. M. (Year Published). Section title. In F. M. Last (Ed.), Book/Anthology (Edition, Page(s)). City, State: Publisher.

Example: Groundwater-Smith, S. (2007). As rain is to fields, so good teachers are to students. In S. Knipe (Ed.), Middle years schooling:  Reframing adolescence (pp. 151-170). Frenchs Forest, N.S.W: Pearson Education Australia.

Magazine

Structure: Last, F. M. (Year, Month Date Published). Article title. Magazine Title, Page(s).

Example: Allen, L. (2004, August). Will Tuvalu disappear beneath the sea? Global warming threatens to swamp a small island nation. Smithsonian, 35(5), 44-52.

Newspaper

Structure: Last, F. M. (Year, Month Date Published). Article title. Newspaper Title, Pages(s).

Example: Landler, M. (2007, June 2). Bush’s Greenhouse Gas Plan Throws Europe Off Guard. New York Times, p. A7

Journal

Structure: Last, F. M., & Last, F. M. (Year Published). Article title. Journal Title, Volume(Issue), Page(s). doi:number

Example: Bogdonoff, S., & Rubin, J. (2007). The regional greenhouse gas initiative: Taking action in Maine. Environment, 49(2), 9-16

Website

Structure: Last, F. M. (Year, Month Date Published). Article title. Website Title. Retrieved Month Date, Year, from URL

Example: United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2007, May 4). Climate Change. Retrieved From the Environmental Protection Agency website: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange

Note: Include the exact URL when not properly indexed or easy to find. Otherwise, include the homepage URL. Include the date retrieved if information is liable to change over time.

Online Database

Structure: Last, F. M. (Year Published). Article title. Journal Name, Volume (Issue), Page(s). Retrieved Month Date, Year, from URL.

Example: Waring, G. & Levy, D. (2009). Challenging adverse reactions in children with food allergies. Paediatric Nursing, 22, 16-22.Retrieved from http://paediatricnursing.rcnpublishing.co.uk/

Note: Include retrieval date if source information may change over time. For URL, Use homepage URL of publisher. If none, use the homepage database URL. If published only online, use unique URL. APA6 explains database names are not necessary, so you may omit this.

MLA 8 Citation Guide

The MLA citation guide was put together by the Modern Language Association to make it easy to cite almost any kind of source. Doing this meant that it was now easier to cite all kinds of 'unusual' sources, such as TV shows or music transcripts. The MLA guide is one of the newest citation styles around, having only been devised in 1985. Despite that though, it has been revised many times, and the newest version is the MLA 8. This version was revised in 2016.

MLA Basics: Quick Guide

Book

Structure: Last, First M. Book. City: Publisher, Year Published. Medium.

Example: Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. Love in the Time of Cholera. Vintage, 1988.     

Chapter/Anthology

Structure: Last, First M. “Section Title.” Book/Anthology, Ed. First M. Last. Edition. City: Publisher, Year Published. Page(s). Medium.

Example: Kimball, Jean. "Growing Up Together: Joyce and Psychoanalysis, 1900-1922." Joyce through the Ages: A Nonlinear View, edited by Michael Patrick Gillespie, UP of Florida, 1999, pp. 25-45.

Note: Essays, shorts stories, and poems are put in quotes. Works originally published independently such as plays and novels generally are italicized.

Magazine

Structure: Last, First M. “Article Title.” Magazine Title Date Month Year Published: Page(s). Medium.

Example: Wolinsky, Howard. “The Blue-Eyed Anomaly.” Ancestry, vol. 27, no. 1, Jan.-Feb. 2009, pp. 58-69.

Newspaper

Structure: Last, First M. “Article Title.” Newspaper Title [City] Date Month Year Published: Page(s). Medium.

Example: Tumola, Cristabelle. “NYC Developers Seek to Justify High Prices with New Amenities.” Metro [New York City], 9 Aug. 2016, p. 4.

Note: Only include [City] if it is not in the title. Do not include if the newspaper is well known or nationally published.

Journal

Structure: Last, First M., and First M. Last. “Article Title.” Journal Title Series Volume.Issue (Year Published): Page(s). Medium.

Example: Molina, Natalia "In A Race All Their Own: The Quest To Make Mexicans Ineligible For U.S. Citizenship" Pacific Historical Review, vol. 79, no. 2, May 2010 pp. 167 - 201

Website

Structure: Last, First M. “Article Title.” Website Title. Website Publisher, Date Month Year Published. Web. Date Month Year Accessed.

Example: Farkas, Meredith. "Tips for Being a Great Blogger (and a Good Person)." Information Wants to Be Free, 19 July 2011, meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/2011/07/19/tips-for-being-a-great-blogger-and-good-person/. 

Online Database

Structure: Last, First M. “Article Title.” Journal Title Series Volume.Issue (Year Published): Page(s). Database Name. Web. Date Month Year Accessed.

Example: Hannah, Daniel K. "The Private Life, the Public Stage: Henry James in Recent Fiction." Journal of Modern Literature, vol.30, no. 3, 2007, pp. 70-94. JSTOR, www.jstor.org.ezproxy.lib.uwf.edu/stable/30053134.

TV/Radio Program

Structure: “Episode.” Contributors. Program. Network. Call Letter, City, Date. Medium.

Example: “The Highlights of 100.” Seinfeld. Fox. 17 Feb. 2009. Television.

Film

Structure: Title. Dir. First M. Last and First M. Last. Perf. First M. Last, First M. Last, and First M. Last. Distributor, Year Published. Media Type.

Example: The Little Mermaid. Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, Walt Disney Pictures, 17 Nov. 1989.

Sound Recording

Structure: Contributors. “Song.” Album. Band. Manufacturer, Year. Medium.

Example: Presley, E. "Jailhouse Rock." Essential Elvis Presley, BMG, 2007.

Visual Art/Photograph

Structure: Last, First M. Title. Year Created. Medium. Museum/Institution, Location.

Example: Gilpin, Laura. “Terraced Houses, Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico.” Library of Congress, Reproduction no. LC-USZ62-102170, 1939, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/90716883/.

Lecture/Speech

Structure: Last, First M. “Speech.” Meeting / Organization. Location. Date. Description

Example: Pausch, Randy. “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” Journeys. McConomy Auditorium, Pittsburgh. 18 Sept. 2007. Lecture.

Interview

Structure: Interviewee. “Title.” Interview by interviewer. Publication information. Medium.

Example: Jolie, Angelina. “Being a Mother.” 60 Minutes. CBS. WCBS, New York: 3 Feb. 2009. Television.

Cartoon

Structure: Last, First M. “Title.” Cartoon / Comic strip. Publication information. Medium.

Example: Block, Herbert. "The American Scene." Cartoon. New York Times 1 Feb. 1942: E3. Web

Chicago Citation Guide

The Chicago Style Manual was initially devised in 1906 for writers and anyone who dealt mainly in the written word. Now, it's used by many disciplines in order to cite their sources. In fact, it's now the most widely used citation style in the United States. The style allows for a certain mixture of usages, as long as the end result is consistent and understandable. For example, you can use both in text citations and footnotes if needed.

Chicago Style Basics: Quick Guide

Book

Structure: Last, First M. Book. City: Publisher, Year Published.

Example: Read, Richard. Art and its Discontents: The Early Life of Adrian Stokes. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2002.

Chapter/Anthology

Structure: Last, First M. “Section Title.” In Book/Anthology, edited by First M. Last, Page(s). Edition ed. City: Publisher, Year Published.

Example: Kelly, John D. “Seeing Red: Mao Fetishism, Pax Americana, and the Moral Economy of War.” In Anthropology and Global Counterinsurgency, edited by John D. Kelly, Beatrice Jauregui, Sean T. Mitchell, and Jeremy Walton, 67–83. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010.

Magazine

Structure: Last, First M. “Article Title.” Magazine Title, Month Date, Year Published.

Example: Chan, Dan. The art of pandas. Panda Magazine, Nov 10, 1985.

Newspaper

Structure: Last, First M. “Article Title.” Newspaper Title (City), Month Date, Year Published.

Example: Mendelsohn, Daniel. “But Enough about Me.” New Yorker, January 25, 2010.

Journal

Structure: Last, First M., and First M. Last. “Article Title.” Journal Title, Series, Volume, no. Issue (Month Date, Year Published): Page(s).

Example: Goldswain, Philip. "State Theatre Centre." Architecture Australia 100, no. 2 (2011): 49-57.

Website

Structure: Last, First M. “Article Title.” Website Title. Month Date, Year Published. Accessed Month Date, Year. URL.

Example: Schneider, Keith.  “Salt Lake City is Finding a Payoff in Conservation.” New York Times, November 7, 2007. Accessed June 13, 2016.  http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/business/businessspecial3/07cities.htm

Online Database

Structure: Last, First M. “Article Title.” Journal Title, Series, Volume, no. Issue (Month Date, Year Published): Page(s). Accessed Month Date, Year. URL.

Example: Walshaw, Aimee. "Accommodating Poverty: The Housing and Living Arrangements of the English Poor, C. 1600-1850." Housing Studies 27, no. 5 (2012): 726-27. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2012.617922

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