Documenting Your Sources
You are likely to encounter different styles of documentation from class to class. One teacher may require footnotes; another, endnotes. An English professor will ask for a list of "Works Cited" while a psychology professor will ask for a list of "References." Even the punctuation of the "Works Cited" and "Reference" lists will vary, as will that of the citations within the texts.
The reason for the variance is that each documentation style meets a different set of needs, and the needs vary from discipline to discipline.
Two styles you will encounter frequently at Guilford are the MLA (for Modern Language Association), generally used in the humanities, and the APA (for American Psychological Association), often used in the social and behavioral sciences.
Just to illustrate the differences, here is the same book being quoted and then end-listed in each of the two styles. Note how the APA style places greater emphasis on the date of a source's publication:
MLA style:
quotation with citation: "If scientific knowledge is at least as important as any other knowledge, then it must be communicated effectively, clearly, in words of certain meaning" (Day 5).
on Works Cited page:
Day, Robert A. How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper. 5th ed. Phoenix: Oryx, 1998.
APA style:
quotation with citation: "If scientific knowledge is at least as important as any other knowledge, then it must be communicated effectively, clearly, in words of certain meaning" (Day, 1998, p. 5).
on References page:
Day, R. (1998) How to write and publish a scientific paper (5th ed.). Phoenix: Oryx.
You can find guidelines for the MLA and APA styles in the college handbook. This book also contains instructions for two other popular styles, the Chicago Style and the CBE (Council of Biology Editors) style.
Complete guidelines for MLA and APA styles appear, respectively, in the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: MLA, 2003, and
the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 5th ed. Washington, DC: APA, 2001.
When in doubt as to which style or manual to use . . . consult your instructor.
Documenting Electronic Sources
You can find information on how to document electronic sources in the college handbook.
A good online guide to MLA electronic citation is Janice Walker's:
This site has a copyright. Should you need to reach Walker, who teaches at the University of South Florida, her email address is jwalkerchuma.@cas.usf.edu
Here is a website for University of Chicago style: