Citing Sources
MLA, APA, CSE, and Chicago Style (Turabian)

Citation Generators

The form of citation and documentation you use depends on the discipline in which you are writing. Below is a list of the most frequently used citation forms and some of the disciplines in which they are used. If in doubt about which form to use, check with your instructor. Citation generators help you assemble your in-text and end-of-text citations.

MLA Style, established by the Modern Language Association, is the citation form used most often in English, language, and other humanities classes. It uses parenthetical references within the text, which usually consist of the last name of the author and the page number, and includes a list of works cited at the end of the work. Note that Works Cited is usually translated literally. If you do not cite the work, do not include it on the list.

APA Style follows the format set by the American Psychological Association and is used extensively in the social sciences. Parenthetical references usually consisting of the last name of the author and the year of publication are used in the text. These are matched to an alphabetical list of references that follow the paper.

CSE Style (formerly called CBE)follows the guidelines established by the Council of Science Editors and is usually used in the biological sciences. It offers two alternatives for documentation style: either the author-date system in parentheses (similar to APA style mentioned above) or a number-reference format. The number references are numbers inserted parenthetically in the text of the document, each future reference occurring in consecutive numbers. These numbers (like raised numbers when creating footnotes or endnotes) correspond to a reference list at the end of the paper.

Chicago Style (Turabian) is the preferred method used in history. This format includes notes referring to quotations, summaries, or paraphrases from outside sources that occur in your paper. These notes are listed at the bottom of the page of text in which they occur (footnotes) or at the end of the whole paper (endnotes) and are accompanied by a bibliography listing complete information about the sources noted in the text. The guidelines of footnoting are dictated by The Chicago Manual of Style and explained in Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations.

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Websites that help you create your citations

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