Citing your sources is about giving credit where credit is due. Below you'll find some of the most commonly used style guides, basic information about each, and some links to help you learn how to master them.
For comprehensive information, lessons, and FAQs we always recommend checking out Purdue OWL:
The Modern Language Association of America (MLA) Style specifies guidelines for formatting manuscripts and citing research in writing. MLA Style also provides writers with a system for referencing their sources through parenthetical citations in their essays and Works Cited pages. The MLA Handbook is available for reference in the Cooper Union Library!
Basic Format:
(Author Last Name Page Number)
Examples:
(Latartara 97-8)
Article/Journal:
Author Last Name, First Name. "Article Title." Journal Title, volume, issue/number, year, pages. https://doi.org/[doi].
Examples:
Latartara, John. "The Timbre of Thai Classical Singing." Asian Music, vol. 43, no. 2, 2012, pp. 88-114. https://doi.org/10.1353/amu.2012.0013
Books:
Author Last Name, First Name. Title. Edition. Place: Publisher, Date.
Examples:
Anderson, Laurie. United States. 1st ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1984.
The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) Seventeenth Edition is the authoritative reference work for authors, editors, proofreaders, indexers, copywriters, designers, and publishers. In 1903, the University of Chicago Press editors and compositors created a formatted style guide to bring a common set of rules to the process of editing university professors' manuscripts.
The author-date system is preferred in the sciences and social sciences. In this system, sources are briefly cited in the text, usually in parentheses, by author’s last name and year of publication. Each in-text citation matches up with an entry in a reference list, where full bibliographic information is provided.
For more information on using and understanding the Chicago Manual of Style, check out PurdueOWL’s section on Chicago Manual of Style (Author-Date), or the resources provided by the Chicago Manual of Style, which Cooper Union students, faculty, and staff have full access.
In-Text Citations follow the immediate uses of the source and is followed by a period:
(Grazer and Fishman 2015, 12)
(Smith 2016, 315–16)
Grazer, Brian, and Charles Fishman. 2015. A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Smith, Zadie. Swing Time. New York: Penguin Press, 2016.
The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) Seventeenth Edition is the authoritative reference work for authors, editors, proofreaders, indexers, copywriters, designers, and publishers. In 1903, the University of Chicago Press editors and compositors created a formatted style guide to bring a common set of rules to the process of editing university professors' manuscripts.
The footnote system is preferred by many working in the humanities—including literature, history, and the arts. In this system, sources are cited in numbered footnotes or endnotes. Each note corresponds to a superscripted number in the text. Sources are also usually listed in a separate bibliography.
For more information on using and understanding the Chicago Manual of Style, check out PurdueOWL’s section on Chicago Manual of Style (Footnotes and Bibliography), or the resources provided by the Chicago Manual of Styles, which Cooper Union students, faculty, and staff have full access.
Notes:
1. Zadie Smith, Swing Time (New York: Penguin Press, 2016), 315–16.
2. Brian Grazer and Charles Fishman, A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015), 12.
Shortened notes:
3. Smith, Swing Time, 320.
In the bibliography, entries are ordered alphabetically:
Grazer, Brian, and Charles Fishman. A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015.
Smith, Zadie. Swing Time. New York: Penguin Press, 2016.
The American Psychological Association (APA) Style originated from a group of psychologists, anthropologists, and business managers that sought to establish a set of procedures and style guidelines for scientific writing to ease writing comprehension.
The APA Style is preferred by scholarly writing in psychology, nursing, business, communications, engineering, and related fields.
For more information on using and understanding the APA Style, check out PurdueOWL’s APA Style Guide or resources provided by the American Psychological Association.
The author's name is followed by the date and the quotation if followed in parentheses page number indicated p. or pp:
Author's Last Name (Year), " quotation" (p. 199).
If you do not include the author’s name in the text of the sentence, place the author's last name, the year of publication, and the page number in parentheses after the quotation:
(Author's Last Name, Year, p. 199)
In the bibliography, entries are ordered alphabetically:
Grazer, B. & Fishman, C. (2015) A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life. New York: Simon Schuster.
Smith, Z. (2016) Swing Time. New York: Penguin Press.
