Introduction to Citations - APA & MLA Style Guides

First assignment due dates are coming up so now is a good time to look at two common citation styles, APA and MLA. Let's look at where you can find the information needed to help cite your sources.

First, it is important to remember why we cite our sources.  

• To give proper credit to the original authors of ideas we are using.
• To avoid plagiarism. It is wrong to take the ideas of others and claim it as our own. It is a serious offense in academia. 
• To allow our reader to follow up on our claims and learn more about a topic. 

Citing sources involves two steps:

1. List your sources in a properly formatted bibliography at the end of the paper.
2. Refer to all sources listed in your bibliography in the body of your paper. This is also known as in-text citation. 

Now let's look at APA and MLA citation styles:

APA

American Psychological Association, more commonly known as APA, is a citation style used primarily, in psychology although many other fields have adopted it. APA publishes a manual on the citation style called Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

It is currently in the 7th edition. The 7th edition released in late 2019 and hasn’t been adopted by everyone yet. For this reason, the library has guides for both the 6th and 7th editions of the APA manual on our Cite Sources guide. Check with your instructor to confirm which edition of APA they would prefer.

To start writing a citation, first determine the format of your source. Are you citing a book, an article or a website? The format of your source determines what information you need to include in your citation. The Cite Sources guide lists details and examples for each of the most common sources types. Once you have a citation you can now refer to the citation in the body of your paper. This is called an in-text citation. Information on how to format your in-text citations is also on the guide. 

MLA

Modern Language Association or MLA is largely used in English and the Humanities. MLA produces a manual for this style called The MLA Handbook, 8th edition. 

See the Cite Sources MLA guide for instructions on this style along with examples for the most common sources. MLA also uses in-text citations with specific formatting. Be sure to check our MLA guide for details on how to format in-text citations. 

Using library databases helps you avoid plagiarism. Another good reason to use the library databases is that most of them provide you with the citation in at least APA and MLA format. For instructions on how to find formatted citations in the databases see our database tutorials. Just be sure to check each citation against examples in the Cite Sources guide. The citations in the databases are created by an algorithm, not a human, so you should always check them. 

Finally, some pro tips: 

• Always check with your instructor or read the syllabus to find out what citation style is required and ask questions if you are unsure. 
• Collect your citations as you conduct research. I often see students make the mistake of writing a bibliography after they have finished writing a paper. If you wait until you’ve finished writing you will likely forget where you found your sources. As you are reading or searching, take a moment to write down the citation for your sources. It is much easier to delete a citation from a bibliography if you don’t use it than track down a forgotten citation. 
• When in doubt, cite. Students often ask me “should I cite this”? While there are some cases where you do not have to cite, my best advice is “when in doubt, cite.” Citing makes your arguments stronger, not weaker. 
• If you use a citation generator, check the citations for accuracy. Check each citation against examples in our Cite Sources Guide to make sure they are correct.
• Ask us if you are not sure how to cite something. See our library homepage for all the ways you can reach us. Faculty can request a librarian to attend class virtually to give a workshop in the citation style of choice.