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Citation Guides: Home

Citation Styles

Different academic disciplines use different citation styles, so the style that you use should be selected based on the subject of your paper and your professor's requirements for the assignment.  The most common citation styles include:

APA Citation Guide 
APA (American Psychological Association) is commonly used in
the social sciences.


MLA Citation Guide
MLA (Modern Language Association) is commonly used in the
humanities.


Chicago Citation Guide
Chicago is used in history and various other disciplines.

What Are Citations and Why Are They Necessary?

Whenever you do research to write a paper or create a project, it is essential that you document the sources that you used.  When you cite your sources, you lend authority and credibility to your work by providing evidence for your research and by helping your reader to determine how you drew upon the work of others to support your own original argument and ideas.  You also avoid plagiarism by giving credit to the authors whose work informed your own.

You must include a citation if you quote directly from a source, but also if you paraphrase, summarize, or otherwise incorporate another author's opinions or ideas.  It is also important that you cite the sources in which you found facts, information, data, and visuals (images, charts, or graphs) that you used in your work.

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