The American Psychological Association (APA) Style is used predominantly in the social sciences (business, education, psychology, etc.) To practice, try our interactive APA tutorial.
The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association governs formatting for the entire work, and the most current edition, the sixth, is available at the Reference Desk. While the Library's handout covers many citation examples of frequently-used source materials, the Manual contains many more.
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition by The Modern Languages Association (MLA) Style is used predominantly in the humanities (languages, literature, philosophy, etc.) To practice, try our interactive tutorial for MLA style. Ask your professor if they want you to use an edition older than the current 9th ed.
The MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing and the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers provide guidance on the formatting of the entire paper. The most current editions of the two titles are kept at the Reference Desk. While the Library's handout covers many citation examples of frequently-used source materials, the two books contain many more.
MLA Handbook (9th ed.) by Turabian Style is used predominantly in history.
A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations dictates the formatting of the entire paper. The most current edition is kept at the Reference Desk. While the Library's handout covers many citation examples of frequently-used source materials, the Manual contains many more.
A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Ninth Edition by Turabian is very similar to Chicago style. Chicago style has two systems of documentation -- the notes-bibliography and the author-date version. Confirm with your professor if they want you to use one of those styles.
Chicago Manual of Style Citation Quick Guide -- contains examples of both the notes-bib and the author-date styles
Chicago Manual of Style (Purdue OWL) -- focuses mainly on the notes-bib style.
Many databases provide helpful citation generators. View the Citation Helper Tools guide for more information.
