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Cite It Right!

Citation information to be used with the Cite It Right - Got Research? workshops

Your List of Citations

When you are finishing your research paper, it's important to gather up all of your sources and make a list of complete citations for each source.

That list has a different name in each citation style.

  • MLA - Works Cited
  • APA - References
  • Chicago - Bibliography

Even though the lists have different names they have many features in common.

  • Start your list of citations on a new page
  • Center the title of your citation list
  • Arrange the citations in alphabetical order by the last name of the author
  •         or, if there is no author, by the first major word in the title.
  • Double space the information in the list
  • Use a hanging indent for each entry
  • Do not number items in the list of citations

Google Docs and Microsoft Word both offer options for formatting your citations with the required "hanging indent."

You can choose to use format special options from toolbar at the top of the page or you can use the margin setting option shown in the video below.

What IS a Citation Style?

Citation style guides show you what information to include in each citation and how to organize your list of citations.

MLA Style

MLA is a style guide for citations from the Modern Language Association (MLA).

MLA citation style is primarily used for research papers in English classes.

APA Style

APA is a style guide for citations from the American Psychological Association (APA).

APA citation style is primarily used for research papers in nursing and social sciences classes.

Chicago Style

Chicago is a style guide for citations from the University of Chicago .

Chicago Style and Turabian citation style are primarily used for research papers in Humanities classes such as history and art

Find rules and details about how to make citations using the links below.

A URL is NOT a Citation!

What do I include in a citation for an internet source?

MLA requires as much of the following information as possible:
      Author's name
      Title of the work
      Title of the website
      Name of the website sponsor
      Date of the most recent   update
      URL
      Date of access (or the date you looked at the website)

APA requires as much of the following information as possible:
      Author's name
      Date of publication or update
      Title of the source
      URL
      DOI - Digital Object Identifier  -for online newspaper, magazine or journal articles.

 Chicago Style or Chicago Manual of Style requires as much of the following information as possible:
      Author's name
      Title of the work
      Title of the source
      Date of publication or update
      URL