There are literally hundreds of different
citation styles. The main ones used at
Collin College are APA, Chicago/
Turabian, and MLA.
Please use the arrows at the bottom
of this side of the screen to move
forward or back through the tutorial.
When doing research you are "building on the works of other scholars." If you
decide to use any information from these
scholars they deserve credit for the work
they have done. Referencing other sources
in your work also gives the person reading
your paper the confidence that you
have taken the time to become familiar
with what other scholars in the field have
discovered about your topic.
First, we'll talk briefly about the Chicago
Style. On the screen at the right, please
click the Full Text box and type "study
skills" and "college students" in the
search box. Click Enter.
How many results did you get? Choose the number closest to your results as databases add and delete articles daily.
What do you notice in the subject terms below the first few articles?
Using quotation marks around two words
tells the database to only retrieve articles
having those terms together. This is
particularly helpful for proper names.
Click on the title of the article, "Class
Attendance peer similarity and
academic performance in
a large field study."
What is the name of the Journal in which the Article was Published?
Look at the toolbar on the right side of
the page (You may need to scroll over
just a bit using the bar at the bottom
of the page). Click on the Cite link and
find the Chicago Style.
What is strange about the Chicago example for the article?
by upper level History classes.
Many scholars prefer a "less intrusive"
simple superscript number after a
quote or paraphrase instead of the
(author/date citation) used by the
MLA and APA styles.
Example: Chicago and Turabian
The footnote (at the bottom of the page)
or endnote (at the end of the paper)
begins with a superscript number followed
by a period and then a space. This is seen as
less distracting to readers.
Most professors using the Chicago Style
also require an alphabetical list of all
references used at the end of the paper
called a Bibliography. The sources are
single spaced with a double space between
sources.
Example:
In Word, you can make a superscript
number by going to Insert/Symbol/
Subset:/Superscripts and Subscripts.
or, use the icons on the Word Toolbar.
For more information about the Chicago
Style, go to the OWL at Purdue.
Turabian and Chicago Styles are very
similar. It strictly depends on a professor's
choice for using a page named Reference
List or a Bibliography at the end of an
article.
Turabian Style is used by the humanities,
social and natural sciences. If you're not sure
which style to use, read your Syllabus or
ask your Professor! At Collin, we have a Music
and a History professor who prefer the
Turabian Style. For more help with the
Turabian Style, go to eturabian.com.
Please don't do it now or you will exit
out of the tutorial!
We have the Chicago Manual of Style
Online in our list of Databases. We recently acquired a subscription to
Refworks, which can help you keep
track of all your sources and also help
with your Works Cited page in the
MLA style.
Sample footnote in Turabian Style:
Both Chicago and Turabian include the option to use the author-date form instead
of the number-footnote in text citation.
(Author 2016, 4-6)
Using this format you would include a
Reference List at the end of your paper.
Don't worry! Your professor will give
you specific instructions on the format
to use. Let's go on to the MLA Style...
Much easier to understand!
the MLA Handbook and a new way to
cite sources in your English and other
classes! The good news is, that the Handbook has gone from 292 pages
to 160 pages!
Simpler is better! These changes were necessary to
accommodate the rapid increase in
the ways we can access information.
Go to https://style.mla.org for more
information.
Before we get into the new citation
format let's take a quick detour and talk
about WHY we must cite all sources
we use from another source...
If we don't cite our sources we are
guilty of plagiarism!
Is it possible to plagiarize yourself?
Which of the following would be considered plagiarism?
If you paraphrase (change the words around) someone's ideas or arguments without giving credit it's okay because you're using your own words.
There are many ways to accidentally
plagiarize!
when you are doing research keep a
complete and thorough list of all the
sources you find! Make a note of what
are your words and thoughts vs those
you take from other sources. Write
MINE beside your work!
The Internet has changed the way we
gather information! Not too many years
ago students wandered the book stacks
in libraries searching for just the right
book or volume containing the information
for which they were searching...They then
found a Xerox machine to make copies!
We are all very lucky information has
become so much more available - but
because it is so available and there is
so much of it, we must be doubly careful
in keeping track of where it comes from
when we are doing research!
Another consideration about any information
we use is its reliability. There's a library
acronym for judging the quality
of information...
in mind when doing research.
Currency is not so important in
the humanities but if you are doing medical research you certainly want the most up to date
information. This is also true about current
events. Always be aware of the publication
date when doing research.
In what year was the article, "Class Attendance, Peer Similarity and Academic Performance in a Large Field Study published?
source itself. If it's a website, does it have a
title and an author? If it lacks either of these,
it probably is not going to be the best source
to use. That's why it is a good idea to use the
library databases when doing research.
Plus, they do your citations for you!
Authority - Who is the author. Is the author qualified to write in his/her field?
Does the author cite other people in the field?
Purpose - Why was the article
written? Is it Joe Schmo's website trying to
persuade you to accept his point of view?
Your citation is like a road map from your
paper to the sources you used. It consists
of two parts. The first part is the complete list
of sources used and listed in the last page
(Works Cited page) of your paper. The
second part is the citation within the text of your paper - called in-text citation or
parenthetical citation.
According to the 8th edition MLA
Handbook students should look for
the subject topics below when gathering
information to cite their sources.
Pretty much the same as the CRAP test!
8th edition is that of "containers."
When the source being documented is part
of a larger work (contained within the work)…
the container is in Italics – and the source
within the container is in Quotation Marks.
The citation below has a number of containers. Note that a real citation should be double spaced and the 2nd & 3rd lines
indented one half inch from the left margin!
“The Yellow Wallpaper.” Short Stories for Students. Edited by Kathleen Wilson. vol. 1, Gale, 1997, pp. 277-293. Gale Virtual Reference Library.
The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story
contained in an eBook named Short Stories
for Students.
The book is published by a company named
Gale. Short Stories for Students can also be
found online in the Gale Virtual Reference
Library, one of the college databases.
This is a good visual of "containers" from
the Bedford St. Martin's Website.
Some Examples: Title of a book or anthology = italics
Short Story or Poem in the book = " "
Title of a musical album = italics
Song on the album = " "
Title of a TV series = italics
Title of an episode in the series = " "
Which of these should be in italics?
encourages writers to include the DOI (Digital
Object Identifier) at the end of a citation. A
DOI number looks like this and is usually found
at the end of a journal article:
doi:10.1353/pmc.2000.0021.
If there is no DOI number you may include the
URL. Once again, check with your professor
about his/her preferences!
The MLA 8th edition says to
indent long quotations (4 lines or more) in your
text 1/2 inch instead of 1 inch.
Spell out editor, translator,
edited by, etc.
If there are three or more
authors, only list the first author, followed by
et al (and all).
the medium of a source - No more Web,
Print, DVD...
There is no need to include the
date you accessed the source!
There is no need to include
the City of Publication! Just the Publisher's
name.
The title of a journal should be...
The name of a library database should be in...
A short story in an anthology should be in...
Your Works Cited page should be
alphabetized by author or title (if there
is no author). You should ignore any articles
(A, An, The) preceding the title -
For example:
"The Yellow Wallpaper" would be
alphabetized in the Y's not the T's. If
the title begins with a number - For
example: 1984 - it would be alphabetized
under the N's for Nineteen.
So, now you know all there is to know
about citing your sources in the MLA
format.
True or False? All English classes use the MLA Style Format.
Don't forget to print out the Certificate of
completion and turn it in to your professor
to receive lab credit. Happy Citing!
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