Explore our collection of informative and educational blog posts to stay updated on the latest industry trends and expert advice.
Referencing and Citation Style Guides: MLA. APA. CSE. Chicago
Those are the four main styles used when writing professionally or academically. Students will need to use one of these standard styles, so it’s important that you at least have a familiarity with them.
That’s why we created this webpage, which pulls together style guide resources from all over into one convenient place and gives you the information you really need to know.
- Modern Language Association (MLA) Resource Guide
- American Psychological Association (APA) Resource Guide
- Chicago / Turabian Resource Guide
- Council of Science Editors Style (CSE) Resource Guide
Modern Language Association (MLA) Resource Guide
You will probably be writing in MLA style for literature, architecture, art, religion, philosophy, foreign languages, and English. In short, any subject that falls under the umbrella of the humanities.
Book:
Diamond, Jared M. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 1998. Print.
Nabokov, Vladimir. Lolita. New York: Putnam, 1955. Print.
Book Article:
Ahmedi, Fauzia Erfan. “Welcoming Courtyards: Hospitality, Spirituality, and Gender.” Feminism and Hospitality: Gender in the Host/Guest Relationship. Ed. Maurice Hamington. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2010. 109-24. Print.
Harris, Muriel. “Talk to Me: Engaging Reluctant Writers.” A Tutor’s Guide: Helping Writers One to One. Ed. Ben Rafoth. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2000. 24-34. Print.
Journal Article:
Laing, Jennifer, and Warwick Frost. “How Green Was My Festival: Exploring Challenges and Opportunities Associated With Staging Green Events.” International Journal of Hospitality Management 29.2 (2010): 261-7. Print.
Bagchi, Alaknanda. “Conflicting Nationalisms: The Voice of the Subaltern in Mahasweta Devi’s Bashai Tudu.” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 15.1 (1996): 41-50. Print.
Newspaper or Magazine Article:
Kaplan, David A. “Corporate America’s No. 1 Gun For Hire.” Fortune 1 Nov. 2010: 81-95. Print.
Krugman, Andrew. “Fear of Eating.” New York Times 21 May 2007 late ed.: A1. Print.
Encyclopedia Article:
Mercuri, Becky. “Cookies.” The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America. Ed. Andrew F. Smith. Vol. 1. 2004. Print.
McGhee, Karen, and George McKay. “Insects” Encyclopedia of Animals. Washington: National Geographic Society, 2007. 170-71. Print
Website:
Cornell University Library. “Introduction to Research.” Cornell University Library. Cornell University, 2009. Web. 19 June 2009 .
“How to Make Vegetarian Chili.” eHow. Demand Media, n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2009.
General Web Resources:
Bedford / St. Martin’s MLA Updates
Wish you had the MLA handbook but don’t want to shell out for it? Well, Bedford and St. Martin’s lets you download whole chapters in PDF form without paying a dime.
A professor’s guide to the most common MLA format errors. Learn how to avoid them.
University Resources:
You won’t find anything pre-made here, but you will find tips on how to write better, examples to follow when citing, helpful external links, tons of research, and useful style guides.
Anne Arundel Community College
Working on a complicated bibliography and wondering how to cite some specific kind of source? This is the site for you. There are sections here that explain what to do for every single type of source you could ever even dream of using.
See samples of how papers should be formatted. Get tips on writing and grammar. Learn their plagiarism rules. Discover how you can write MLA outlines.
Colgate Visual Resources Library
You can find examples of how to cite images that you use in your papers for MLA, Chicago, and APA styles.
Everything you never knew you wanted to know about citations in MLA style, including a works cited list and all kinds of samples.
Not just samples, but descriptions that explain how you should cite sources in the body of your paper. There are also tips that help you make your works cited page.
If you’re looking for a quick reference to keep by your side as you write, you’ve found it. This two-page PDF provides all the basics.
This handy chart explains the main differences between APA, MLA, and CMS styles.
Reed College – Image Workstation
More information on citing images in papers. Details for MLA, APA, Chicago, and Turabian styles.
The entire 6th and 7th Editions of the MLA Citation Guide can be found here in PDF form, as well as a number of great external links.
Want to read an essay that explains the importance and goals of MLA style? This is where to find it. And for those of you who couldn’t care less, there are also sections explaining how print sources work differently than online sources and what you need to include for a correct in-text citation.
University Libraries – University of Washington
Includes several examples of how to cite images for MLA, APA, and Chicago style.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
If you want to see how important it is to organize a website in a clear and coherent manner, check this one out and marvel at how easy it is to find what you’re looking for (by james at dhead fashion). There are the usual grammar, writing, and citation resources, but the truly interesting thing here is that they also include a guide for ESL students.
University of Maryland University College
All the works cited examples you could ever need.
University of Southern Mississippi Libraries
A step-by-step guide on how to format your paper for MLA Style in the Microsoft Word program.
Washington State University has a lot of MLA style guide resources that are similar to what you can find in other places, but here you can actually download them and bring them with you.
American Psychological Association (APA) Resource Guide
When should you expect to use APA style? Typically, it’s for papers on sociology, political science, law, geography, education, criminal justice, communication studies, economics, and business.
Book:
Diamond, Jared M. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 1998. Print.
Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. New York: Penguin, 1987. Print.
Book Article:
Labajo, J. (2003). Body and voice: The construction of gender in flamenco. In T. Magrini (Ed.), Music and gender: perspectives from the Mediterranean (pp. 67-86). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Serviss, G. P. (1911). A trip of terror. In A Columbus of Space (pp. 17-32). New York, NY: Appleton.
Journal Article:
Sanchez, D., & King-Toler, E. (2007). Addressing disparities consultation and outreach strategies for university settings. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 59(4), 286-295. doi:10.1037/1065- 9293.59.4.286
Jacoby, W. G. (1994). Public attitudes toward government spending. American Journal of Political Science, 38(2), 336-361. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org
Newspaper or Magazine Article:
Kluger, J. (2008, January 28). Why we love. Time, 171(4), 54-60.
Delaney, K. J., Karnitschnig, M., & Guth, R. A. (2008, May 5). Microsoft ends pursuit of Yahoo, reassesses its online options. The Wall Street Journal, pp. A1, A12.
Encyclopedia Article:
Kinni, T. B. (2004). Disney, Walt (1901-1966): Founder of the Walt Disney Company. In Encyclopedia of Leadership (Vol. 1, pp. 345-349). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Bunson, M. R. (2012). Historical Overview. In Encyclopedia on Ancient Egypt (3rd ed., pp. Xii-Xv). New York, NY: Infobase Publishing.
Website:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory. (2008). Biofuels. Retrieved May 6, 2008, from https://www.nrel.gov/learning/re_biofuels.html
Cain, K. (2012, June 29). The Negative Effects of Facebook on Communication. Social Media Today RSS. Retrieved January 3, 2013, from https://socialmediatoday.com.
General Web Resources:
American Psychological Association
Not only does the APA’s official site offer the usual style guides, tutorials, and instructions, it also includes links to a number of more comprehensive books and even has courses that you can take online.
APA Style Crib Sheet for College Papers
Want the gist of the APA style guide without having to read the whole thing? This is the site for you. There are summaries that explain things like documentation for research, page formats, and APA editorial.
A site that seems to do it all, APA Style Essentials both teaches you about the various elements of the style that you need to know (figures, tables, footnotes, appendixes, references, quotations, text citations, bodies, abstracts, title pages, guidelines) and provides useful examples of each. Oh, and did I mention that you can download the whole thing as a PDF?
A free automatic bibliography maker that helps you create your works cited page using auto-fills.
This guide provides important information on using terminology in your APA paper.
Psychology with Style: A Hypertext Writing Guide
Read samples of APA research papers and learn how to format things like quotations and abbreviations.
The Online Writing Center (OWL) at Purdue
Here you’ll be able to get a general APA overview and read samples of works cited pages and full papers.
Research and Documentation Online
Pick a discipline and what part of APA style you need help with and you’ll be taken to a descriptions and examples.
The site might be aimed at social workers, but the 6 APA mistakes listed on this list are useful for anyone.
University Resources:
Colgate Visual Resources Library
You can find examples of how to cite images that you use in your papers for MLA, Chicago, and APA styles.
Everything you never knew you wanted to know about citations in APA style, including a works cited list and all kinds of samples.
A fantastic site if you’re looking for easy-to-follow examples of citations for APA sources.
Another great place to find APA work citations.
Kent State University Libraries
A 7-page PDF cheat sheet for all the basis of APA style.
North Seattle Community College
APA style guides that you can read in convenient PDFs.
Provides specific examples on how you handle APA citation for articles, online sources, and books.
This handy chart explains the main differences between APA, MLA, and CMS styles.
Reed College – Image Workstation
More information on citing images in papers. Details for MLA, APA, Chicago, and Turabian styles.
University Libraries – University of Washington
Includes several examples of how to cite images for MLA, APA, and Chicago style.
The University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign
Just like the MLA section, the APA tutorials here are impeccably organized and absolutely thorough.
A UNM professor’s “quick and dirty” guide to APA style.
The University of Wisconsin – Madison
Goes beyond the basic APA guidelines to explain headings, reference lists, and parenthetical citations.
University of Northern Colorado
Just follow the tabs at the top to find out everything you need to know about APA Style, 6th Edition, along with examples.
Unlike a lot of the other sites here, Westmont makes their advice practical by showing you in a step-by-step manner how to do everything using Microsoft Word. Not to be missed.
William Paterson University of New Jersey
More correct APA citations.
Chicago / Turabian Resource Guide
If you’re writing a history paper, you’ll probably use Chicago style. This goes for British, American, and world history.
Book:
Diamond, Jared M. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 1998. Print.
Stringer, Chris, and Peter Andrews.The Complete World of Human Evolution. London: Thames and Hudson, 2005.
Book Article or Chapter:
Serviss, Garrett Putman. “A Trip of Terror.” In A Columbus of Space, 17-32. Westport, CT: Hyperion Press, 1974.
Hemingway, Ernest. “The Killers.” In The Best American Short Stories of the Century, Lby John Updike and Katrina Kenison, 78-80. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999.
Journal Article:
Breen, T. H. “Will American Consumers Buy a Second American Revolution?” Journal of American History 93, no. 2 (2006): 404-8.
Cooper, Carolyn. “Caribbean Fashion Week: Remodeling Beauty in “Out of Many One” Jamaica.” Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture: 387-404.
Newspaper or Magazine Article:
Bissell, Tom. “Improvised, Explosive, and Divisive.” Harper’s, January 2006, 41-54.
Archibold, Randal C. “These Neighbors Are Good Ones without a New Fence.” New York Times, October 22, 2008, sec. A.
Encyclopedia Article:
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th ed., s.v. “Monroe Doctrine.”
McGhee, Karen, and George McKay. Encyclopedia of Animals. Washington: National Geographic Society, 2007.
Website:
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park. National Park Service. Last modified April 9, 2010. https://www.nps.gov/choh/index.htm.
Brown, Miland. “The Flawed Montevideo Convention of 1933.” World History Blog. https://www.worldhistoryblog.com/2008/05/flawed-montevideo-convention-of-1933.html.
General Web Resources:
The American Anthropological Association
Why use AAA? Because it was created using The Chicago Manual of Style. Lots of great examples here.
Great if you’re looking for a summary of the style, including things like how to format pages and when to use footnotes and endnotes.
The Chicago Manual of Style Online
Want to know how to write Chicago Style numbers? How about using quotations? Formatting tables? This guide tells you everything and even has a Q&A section.
Why would anyone use the Chicago manual of style? Find out here.
The Online Writing Center (OWL) at Purdue
Here you’ll be able to get a general Chicago overview and read samples of works cited pages and full papers.
Research and Documentation Online
Pick a discipline and what part of Chicago style you need help with and you’ll be taken to a descriptions and examples.
University Resources:
Learn the differences between citing all kinds of sources, both in print and online.
Colgate Visual Resources Library
You can find examples of how to cite images that you use in your papers for MLA, Chicago, and APA styles.
Concordia University Libraries
Parenthetical references got you down? Check out this site for help. And while you’re there, peruse their many works cited examples.
Provides specific examples on how you handle citations for articles, online sources, and books.
Reed College – Image Workstation Help
More information on citing images in papers. Details for MLA, APA, Chicago, and Turabian styles.
University Libraries – University of Washington – Images
Includes several examples of how to cite images for MLA, APA, and Chicago style.
The University of Southern Mississippi Libraries
If you can imagine a potential type of source that you might use, this university site will have examples showing you how to format it for Chicago style.
Council of Science Editors Style (CSE) Resource Guide
Writing a paper on astronomy, physics, nursing and health sciences, math, geology, environmental science, engineering, computer science, chemistry, or biology? Most likely, it will be in CSE styles.
Book:
Sherman, C. The invisible Web : uncovering information sources search engines can’t see. Medford, N.J.: CyberAge Books, Information Today; 2001. 439 p.
Voet D, Voet JG. 1990. Biochemistry. New York: J Wiley. 1223 p.
Book Article:
Kuret JA, Murad F. Adenohypophyseal hormones and related substances. In: Gilman AG, Rall TW, Nies AS, Taylor P, editors. The pharmacological basis of therapeutics. 8th ed. New York: Pergamon; 1990. p 1334-60.
McDaniel T.K., Valdivia R.H. (2005) New tools for virulence gene discovery. In: Cossart P, Boquet P, Normark S, Rappuoli R, editors. Cellular microbiology. 2nd ed. Washington (DC): ASM Press. p 473-488.
Journal Article:
Cox J, Engstrom RT. Influence of the spatial pattern of conserved lands on the persistence of a large population of red-cockaded woodpeckers. Biol Conserv. 2001; 100(1): 137-150
Meise C.J., Johnson D.L., Stehlik L.L., Manderson J., Shaheen P. (2003) Growth rates of juvenile Winter Flounder under varying environmental conditions. Trans Am Fish Soc 132(2):225-345.
Newspaper or Magazine Article:
Yoon CK. DNA clues improve outlook for red wolf. New York Times. 2000 Dec 26; Sect. F:10 (col. 1).
Losos JB. 2001 Mar. Evolution: A lizard’s tale. Sci Am. 284(3): 64-69.
Encyclopedia Article:
Ryan KJ. 2010. Dermatophytes, Sporothrix, and other superficial and subcutaneous fungi. In: Sherris medical microbiology. 5th ed. New York (NY): McGraw-Hill. p. 649-657.
Lerner KL, Lerner BW. 2003. Microorganisms. In: World of microbiology and immunology. Detroit (MI): Gale. Vol. 2, p. 387
Website:
APSnet: plant pathology online [Internet]. St Paul (MN): American Phytopathological Association: c1994-2005 [cited 2005 Jun 20]. Available from: https://www.apsnet.org/
Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) [Internet]. [updated 2007 Feb 27]. Columbus
(OH):OhioDepartment of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry; [cited 2007 Jul 24]. Available
from: https://www.dnr.state.oh.us/sorestry/health/eah.htm
General Web Resources:
The Council of Science Editors
There are lots of useful things on this site for professionals and those seriously interested in the sciences, but for people writing papers, the most important thing is probably the fact that it links to the CSE book.
CSU – Council of Science Editors
What is CSE? How do you use it? How should you cite sources? This site answers all those questions and more.
Offers CSE examples, helps you locate and evaluate sources, and even includes a glossary.
After a short intro to CSE, you’ll find ton of samples for how to format your papers, properly cite information, and handle abbreviations and parenthetical in-text citations.
University Resources:
Provides specific examples on how you handle citations for articles, online sources, and books.
Penn State University Libraries
A short but thorough CSE quick citation guide.
Just select a category to learn how to cite different types of resources
Here you’ll find bibliography samples and learn how to handle citations for different kinds of sources, as well as how they work in-text.
