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Citations: Citing Your Sources: Citing Sources

Instructions and quick guides for citing sources.

How Do you Cite Sources?

There are two elements to every citation:
(Note: These are just two examples. Always check a current citation guide for the style your instructor requires for proper formatting.)

1. In-Text citation (APA) or Footnote/Endnote (Chicago)

This is where you identify the material you are using in your paper.

An APA in text citation can be found at the end of a sentence, like (Vezzali et al., 2015)

Chicago Footnote Style:

Chicago will indicate an in text citation with a superscript

 

2. Works Cited Page or Footnote Citations

This is where you list, in alphabetical order, the complete citations for all the sources you noted in your in-text citations, for styles like APA.

Vezzali, L., Stathi, S., Giovannini, D., Capozza, D., & Trifiletti, E. (2015). The Greatest Magic of Harry Potter: Reducing Prejudice. Journal Of Applied Social Psychology, 45(2), 105-121. doi:10.1111/jasp.12279

Or, for the Chicago notes style, format the full citation in the note as such.

Vezzali, Loris, Sofia Stathi, Dino Giovannini, Dora Capozza, and Elena Trifiletti. 2015. "The Greatest Magic of Harry Potter: Reducing Prejudice." Journal Of Applied Social Psychology 45, no. 2: 105-121. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed September 28, 2016).

How Do You Choose a Style?

Ask your instructor which style they want you to use. If they have no preference, you can use the one intended for your discipline. 

  • APA: psychology, education, and other social sciences
  • MLA: literature, arts, and humanities
  • AMA: medicine, health, and biological sciences
  • Turabian: used mainly by thesis and dissertation writers in all subjects
  • Chicago: used with many subjects; music, usually history and some humanities

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