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Before you can properly cite your source material, you need to identify which conventions to follow.
These are found in documentation style guides.
"What is a documentation style guide?" A documentation style guide is published by
an organization or company and gives specific guidelines on how to cite source material
in your work. "How do I know which style guide to use?"
Use the commonly accepted style guide for your field or discipline.
In academia, style guides are discipline specific. "What are the commonly used style guides
in academia?" In the natural and human sciences, the APA
documentation style guide is commonly used. In the humanities, the MLA documentation style
guide is commonly used. There are other style guides that your academic
unit may recommend, but knowing how to use APA and MLA is a great start!
"Do I have to memorize everything in the style guide?"
NO. A documentation style guide is a reference
tool. But, you do need to know how to look up the type of source you are citing.
For example, if you are citing an article from an online library database, you need
to know where to look up the conventions for citing that type of source in either APA or
MLA.
"I found an article using a database through my library. How do I cite it in MLA and APA?"
First: make sure you keep all of the pertinent information for your source. Staying organized
when collecting your source material is important! It will save you a lot of time when you sit
down to document your sources. The key information to note when collecting
your sources is: Author(s) name(s), date of publication, of access, title of article,
title of publication, page numbers of article, volume and/or issue number.
Second: go to the style guide you are using to locate these two items.
The format for full entry in the reference page.
The format for in-text citation.
Third: follow the format for both full entry and in-text citation exactly.
This sample uses MLA formatting. To cite your article using the MLA style guide,
you will need to look up electronic sources, then narrow this to an article from an online
database or subscription service. Most of the articles that students find through their
academic institution's library are from a database or subscription service that is
paid for by the library. The MLA format for citing this type of electronic
source is Author(s) name(s), article title, journal title, volume/issue number, volume year,
page numbers of article, database/subscription service, Web. Date accessed.
Like this .... MLA and APA are both picky about when you
italicize, use quotation marks, add end marks, etc. So pay attention to these details!
To cite the Stephen Hartnett article in the body of your writing, you use an in-text citation.
MLA requires you follow these guidelines:
The information you provide in-text MUST correspond to the reference page.
The signal word or phrase you provide in your in-text citation needs to correspond to your
reference page. This signal word or phrase should be the first
thing your reader sees in the left-hand margin of your reference page.
Like this ...
The in-text information here would allow your reader to go to the reference page and locate
the full entry for Stephen Hartnett's article on Google. The page number would signal to
your reader on what page you found the original source material.
To properly use a documentation style guide, the goals are:
Learn what the commonly used documentation style guide is in your discipline or field.
Learn to use the style guide as a reference tool to look up specific types of sources
and their corresponding format for citation. Learn to use the style guide format in your
own writing to successfully cite your sources.