Citing Your Source
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MLA, APA, Chicago – these may be terms you are hearing your professors say and unless you had English 101 or went to a really nice high school, it’s just gibberish. These are all citation styles to help you write your papers and give credit where credit is due. There are more types of citation styles, but these are the common three you may encounter at university:
· APA (American Psychological Association) is used by Education, Psychology and Science.
· MLA (Modern Language Association) is used by the Humanities.
· Chicago is generally used by Business, History and Fine Arts.
Generally speaking, they are fairly similar to each other and really differ with their in-text citations and how they order their list of all references in the back of your paper. You may be asked to purchase a desk reference on how to cite in these different styles, and really unless you are a graduate student who will be writing a ton of academic papers that will be seen by eyes outside of your professor’s then we really do not think it is necessary. We would recommend that you download a citation management software of some kind and we are giving you a list of some worth considering:
WORD
Microsoft Word actually has one built-in. It isn’t “great” but it isn’t bad either. Go to your References tabs and everything you need is right there. You can start by inserting your first citation, which Word will prompt you step-by-step, field-by-field. It will also collect them for your Reference page at the end. This one is our recommended citation management for the courses that do not require a lot of formal papers.
Tip: If you have to start a new paper, you can actually start a paper that is already formatted in APA, MLA, Chicago – Just open Word, and when you start a new document, search for a template with the citation style you need.
Zotero
Zotero is a citation management tool that is built into your web browser (Firefox or Chrome). It can pull citations from most university library catalogs, databased, and websites, and can help you organize them for use in-text, bibliographies and footnotes in APA, MLA, and Chicago. It will also allow you to save snapshots of web pages and annotates them within your library – which is great for those submitting assignments based on web-based publications, commercials, or social networking site. Citing a web page that exist when you started your project but now has a 404 Error is technically plagiarism, so it’s nice to have receipts. Your citations can be saved on your local computer (which means you’re only limited for storage is how much free space your drive has) but it has web based syncing between other computers. Even though it is web based, you can work offline. You can upload your citations in Microsoft Word, Google Docs and Open Office.
It is free. https://www.zotero.org/
Mendeley
Mendeley is a desktop software but you have the ability to sync remotely with an online account. It can import citations form many popular databases, and can extract citations direly from PDFs which makes it great for those working with academic journals. Since it is storing citations on your local computers, the capacity is unlimited. But if you want an online account to sync with other computers…there is a cost for some bytes. Mendeley is friendly with Zotero and will sync from its library. Will work in Microsoft Word, Google Docs and LaTex (a platform commonly used of thesis writing/publishing).
Typically Mendeley is free through the university, so check with your librarian or IT. https://www.mendeley.com/
Endnote
If your university has access to EndNote for free, download it now (if not it may cost up to $80). It is a desktop software with a cloud web-based version. You can export from databases and even search catalogs within Endnote, which is great for those that don’t like to have multiple windows open. Its compatible with Microsoft Word, Open Office, Pages, and EndNote has its own word processor. We recommend this for the thesis student as it’s the best to organize an insanely large collection of citations and PDFs and you can share your references with other Endnote users (you can in the others but not as easily). You can also match your current papers with reputable journals to see if they are appropriate for publishing – makes it much easier than asking your faculty or editors if your blood, sweat and tears even has the prospect on being published.
After you chosen your favorite citation management tool, it is great to also select a go-to online writing lab to review your paper and ensure you have (or the software has) done everything correctly.
Purdue OWL has been the gold standard as it is the oldest and most comprehensive online writing lab, but honestly…your university will have a similar resource somewhere on campus. Check your library or student success center for more information, but these resources are often run out of the English Department. The university Ayrielle and Krista went to in their undergraduate would even offer edits and run a plagiarism-check, so you never had to be called into a meeting with a professor about how god-awful that last paper was.
What resources have you found helpful in writing papers?