Including a brief handout of basic citations
About Academic Citation and Writing
This guide introduces a few of the academic style manuals used for writing, documenting, and publishing academic papers. It is divided into two main parts. The first section, Guides to Citation, lists works that provide general and subject-specific help with different documentation formats. Some of the more well-known of documentation formats are those used by the Modern Languages Association (MLA) and the American Psychological Association (APA), and those presented in the Chicago Manual of Style and A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, also known as Turabian citation style. All of the works included under Guides to Citation provide advice on writing and composition in addition to the information they provide on citation, but are most useful, and most commonly used, for help with footnotes, endnotes, bibliographies, and other documentation.
The remainder of the guide presents those titles in the library's collection that are concerned with writing styles common to particular disciplines. The style manuals listed here contain information about writing composition, format for scientific illustrations and tables, use of art and music as evidence, and more. Some, but not all, provide information on style for bibliographies and footnotes.
To determine which style format to follow be sure to ask your professors which specific citation and style manuals they prefer. In some disciplines a variety of manuals may be considered as acceptable guides to format and style. For example, scholars of anthropology often follow the format proposed by the American Anthropological Association, but may also follow the format of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. The library also has a guide to Citing Electronic Documents, which offers links to other helpful guides and examples for citing electronic resources. Again, it is vital to ask your professors what specific documentation style to use for electronic resources, as they may indicate a preference.
If you can not find a particular style manual or if you have any questions regarding citation format, ask a Reference Librarian for assistance. Note also that you can find help with documentation style at the Center for Teaching and Learning.
In addition to the sources below, you may want to consult Duke University's guide, Assembling a List of Works Cited in Your Paper, which gives examples of several different citation formats for a variety of materials.
Top
Guides to Citation
American Anthropological Association
The American Anthropological Association has placed its official style guide on the web; it presents preferences regarding article titles and section headings, capitalization, usage of foreign words, and other considerations of style and format along with preferences for citations. Users of AAA style are directed to the Chicago Manual of Style when there is no specific AAA rule presented. The library offers
social science students a guide to Anthropology Citation Formats for assistance with documentation only.
American Psychology Association. Publication Manual
of the American Psychological Association. 5th ed.
Washington D.C.: American Psychological Association, 2001.
Accepted by professionals in many fields as the standard guide for citation, the APA manual's influence reaches far beyond the discipline of psychology. Changes to the 5th edition are substantial; APAStyle.org lists many of these. Extensive coverage is given to preparation of manuscripts for publication as well as to preferences within the field of psychology regarding writing and grammar, APA editorial style, and presentation of data and other evidence.
RRef. BF 76.7 .P83 2001
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of
Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: The Modern
Language Association of America, 2003.
One of the major guides to writing and citation for undergraduates in the humanities. Initial chapters analyze the educational and intellectual purposes of scholarly research, the steps in a
research project, and stylistic concerns. Chapters 4 and 5 cover the MLA style of documentation, and explain how to provide citations within and list sources at the end of a scholarly work. In addition, detailed examples are given of footnote entries, endnote entries, and bibliographic entries. The remainder of the MLA Handbook offers abbreviations for documentation, notable reference works in specialized fields, alternate systems of documentation, and sample pages of a research paper that illustrate the MLA style.
RRef. LB 2369 .G53 2003
Grossman, John. The Chicago Manual of Style.
15th ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003.
The Chicago Manual of Style is one of the most widely-used style manuals for the humanities and social sciences. It addresses the needs of professionals as well as students, and includes major sections on parts of a published work, manuscript preparation and editing, working with proofs, and copyright. For students, the chapters on documentation will probably be of the most help. Because of the level of detail included in The Chicago Manual of Style, it is important to consult its index.
RRef. LB2369 .U69 2003
Hacker, Diana. A Pocket Style Manual.
2nd ed. Boston: Bedford Books, 2004.
This work, often used in Lawrence's Freshman Studies classes, serves as a quick reference
guide for student writers and researchers. It describes the
distinct writing and documentation styles used by scholars in
the humanities, physical sciences, and social sciences. In
addition, the manual provides guidance on grammar,
punctuation, and research paper documentation. For more detailed information, you might want to consult A Writer's Reference, also by Hacker.
RRef. PE 1408 .H26 2004
Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for
Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 6th ed.
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1996.
The Turabian guide is based on the information presented in The Chicago Manual of Style, and summarizes and interprets the Chicago style specifically for students.
Chapter 1 describes the parts of a long formal research paper. Chapters 2 through 5 provide guidance on the use of abbreviations, punctuation, italics, and quotations. Chapters 6 and 7 cover the use of tables and illustrations. Chapters 8 through 12 describe two kinds of citation style, one using notes and bibliographical references, the other using parenthetical citations and a reference list. The remaining chapters offer a selection of sample bibliography and note citations.
RRef. LB 2369 .T8 1996
Top
Citation Generators
Citation generators can help you draft citations for your paper. Be sure to proofread the text created by these programs, as they may require editing.
From the library:
RefWorks
RefWorks is a web-based citation manager provided by the library, similar in many ways to EndNote or ProCite. Our subscription to RefWorks lets you create a database of your research. Entries, including abstracts of articles, can be downloaded directly from a number of online research sources, or you can create records for articles, books, websites, and more. RefWorks has the added benefit of allowing you to include notes on your research. Bibliographies can be drafted from the entries in your RefWorks database in AAA, ACS, APA, Chicago, and MLA style, plus dozens of formats for publication in specific journals.
From other providers:
These tools allow you to create individual citations based on information you type or copy into the tools for each item to be included. If you would like to download citations, track your research, and draft an entire bibliography, use RefWorks.
KnightCite
KnightCite is a product of Hekman Library at Calvin College. KnightCite drafts individual citations for a variety of print and electronic formats in MLA, APA, and Chicago style. Type in the required fields for the material you want to cite, and KnightCite generates text you can copy into a document.
bibme
Produced by GreenRiver.org., bibme supports MLA, APA, and Chicago citation formats. The manual entry mode will be the most useful for most academic papers. You can create and download bibliographies in .rtf format, or save a bibliography to bibme after creating an account.
Citation Builder
A resource provided by the library at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill that builds citations in APA, MLA, and CBE (Council of Biology Editors) formats. Citations are generated for all three formats at once, and the text can be copied into a document. You can create citations for books, scholarly journal articles, chapters or essays from books, web sites, magazines, and newspapers.
NoodleTools
NoodleTools is a provider of a product called NoodleBib, a bibliography tool available for a fee. NoodleBib Express is a free version of NoodleBib. It allows you to create individual citations in APA or MLA formats. NoodleBib Express requires you to click through a number of screens and options to generate a citation.
Son of Citation Machine
A revised version of Citation Machine, Son of Citation Machine is another tool to generate individual citations in MLA, APA, Chicago, and soon Turabian styles. Fewer kinds of citations are supported than in some of the other sources, for example, formatting is not provided for edited books. It does, however, provide a form for creating parenthetical citations.
SourceAid
SourceAid sells a subscription service, but also offers Citation Builder, a tool that allows you to build individual citations in APA, MLA, Chicago, and Council of Science Editors styles. Individual entries can then be downloaded in rich text format or e-mailed.
Barnet, Sylvan. A Short Guide to Writing about Art. New York: Longman, 2000.
Ref. N7476 .B37 2000
Council of Science Editors. Scientific Style
and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and
Publishers. 7th ed. Reston, VA:
Council of Science Editors and the Rockefeller University Press, 2006.
Ref. T 11 .S386 2006
American Chemical Society. The ACS Style Guide:
Effective Communication of Scientific Information. Washington D.C.:
American Chemical Society, 2006.
Ref. QD 8.5 .A25 2006
Thomson, William. A Guide for the Young Economist. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001.
H62 .T465 2001
Geowriting: A Guide to Writing, Editing, and Printing in Earth Science. Edited by Robert L. Bates, Marla D. Adkins-Heljeson, and Rex C. Buchanan.
Alexandria, VA: American Geological Institute, 2004.
[q.] QE48.85 .G44 2004
Marius, Richard. A Short Guide to Writing about History. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman, 1989.
D13 .M294 1989
Corrigan, Timothy. A Short Guide to Writing about Film. New York: HarperCollins College Publishers, 1994.
PN1995 .C66 1994
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of
Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: The Modern
Language Association of America, 2003.
See Guides to Citation above for detailed information.
RRef. LB 2369 .G53 2003
Gillman, Leonard. Writing Mathematics Well: A Manual
for Writers. 8th ed. Austin, Texas: Mathematical
Association of America, 1987.
Ref. QA 42 .G45 1987
Knuth, Donald Ervin, Tracy Larrabee, and Paul M. Roberts. Mathematical Writing. Washington, D.C.: The Mathematical Association of America, 1989.
[q.] QA42 .K58 1989
Krantz, Steven G. A Primer of Mathematical Writing: Being a Disquisition on Having Your Ideas Recorded, Typeset, Published, Read And Appreciated. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society, 1997.
QA42 .K73 1997
How to Write about Music: The RILM Manual of Style. Edited by James R. Cowdery. New York: Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale, 2006
Ref. ML3797 .H69 2006
Bellman, Jonathan. A Short Guide to Writing about Music. New York: Longman, 2000.
ML3797 .B4 2000
Wingell, Richard J. Writing about Music: An Introductory Guide. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River,
N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2002.
ML3797 .W54 2002
American Psychology Association. Publication Manual
of the American Psychological Association. 5th ed.
Washington D.C.: American Psychological Association, 2001.
See Guides to Citation above for detailed information.
RRef. BF 76.7 .P83 2001
Sternberg, Robert J. The Psychologist's Companion: A Guide to Scientific Writing for Students and Researchers.
Ref. BF76.8 .S73 2003
Top
Definitions of terms and abbreviations:
Ref. = Reference collection, first floor
RRef.= Ready reference, shelves in behind the reference desk
q. = Oversized books: interfiled in reference and in scores; at end of classes in other collections
Top
