Writing the Paper: Citing Sources

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Guide To Writing A Research Paper

Writing the Paper

Citing Sources

In citing sources, you have a variety of styles from which to choose. For most research papers for college English courses, the Modern Language Association (MLA) style is recommended. Commonly used alternatives include the American Psychological Association (APA) and The Chicago Manual of Style guidelines. In addition, for writing in specific subject areas such as the sciences, medicine, the fine arts, and humanities, professional associations and journals often specify a particular style to follow.

Modern Language Association (MLA)

MLA style calls for three methods of acknowledging sources:

In-text citation of sources within parentheses
Complete source documentation in a Works Cited (or References or Bibliography) section at the end of your paper
Content notes (optional, depending on need)

For within-text citations for direct quotes, you should clearly identify the author by name and include the page number of the quoted material within parentheses directly after the end quotation marks:

Blank makes this point clear in his discussion of genetics and public policy issues: "Because each new genetic discovery permits new information to be decoded from the sample, no one . . . knows what information it potentially contains" (222).

For within-text citations of paraphrased material, you should include the author's name and place the page(s) within parentheses:

Using the analogy of the human genome as a map, Kegley warns of the implicit danger of such genetic reductionism (53).

When you wish to emphasize the content (rather than the identify of the author) in your discussion, include the author's name and the page within parentheses in this style:

It is the public who will pay the cost of allowing private companies to hold patents on genome research, and if private owners charge access fees for their data, publicly funded researchers will have to pay for this service (Sherer 5).

More than one author

For two authors, include the names of both authors within parentheses, followed by the page number(s). For more than two authors, include within parentheses the name of the first author followed by "et al." (in italics) and the page number(s).

Multiple works by one author

To refer to a work by an author of more than one cited source, include the author's name followed by a comma and the name of the source and page number:

The parallel growth of genetic and technological information has generated a new field of "bioinformatics" (Jones, Genetics in 2000 290).

American Psychological Association (APA)

The APA style cites sources in the text by author and date. Here are some examples:

Krimmins (1993) demonstrated the effectiveness of early intervention in the primary-school setting.

Following APA style, complete source information is included at the end of the paper in a References section.

The Chicago Manual of Style

The Chicago Manual of Style recommends the author and date style for papers in the natural sciences and social sciences. However, for papers in the humanities it suggests footnotes or endnotes. Superscript numbers are used in the text to refer to the notes, which appear either at page bottoms (footnotes) or together at the end of the paper (endnotes). We do not recommend use of this style for college- or university-level general research papers.