There is no universally accepted format for formatting and documenting citations in academic writing. Different disciplines, and even different journals within a discipline, are each likely to have their own partly rational and partly idiosyncratic customs and rules. Indeed an important part of scholarly training is learning what the rules are in one's particular field, so one can display the right kind of learning and professionalization. Fortunately for students and writing guides, a few documentation styles are especially widely used. Nuts and Bolts presents here guides to four common documentation styles: MLA, which is widely used in the humanities; APA, widely used in the social sciences; Chicago, also common in those two areas (and the format for those who favor footnotes); and CBE, widely used in the natural sciences. Together these four guides should help you navigate most of the documentation formats you'll face in the typical range of college courses.

MLA document formats

In the humanities the most influential writing and documentation style is that of the Modern Language Association of America (MLA), one of the largest academic organizations in the world. MLA documentation style is common in English, foreign languages, comparative literature, and other humanities courses.

Nuts and Bolts presents here a concise guide to MLA style. The full MLA format is available in a book, The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th ed., which can be ordered directly from the MLA. It is aimed primarily at undergraduates. Graduate students and professional scholars may wish to consult the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, 2nd ed., which contains helpful information on publication. It can also be ordered from the MLA.

Paper and binding

Use sturdy white, unlined 8.5" by 11" paper. Essays should be stapled or paper-clipped in the upper left corner. Don't use binders or plastic covers unless your teacher wants them, nor should you hold your paper together by folding or tearing pages.

Margins, line spacing, and paragraphs

Except for page numbers (see below), use margins of one inch on all sides. The essay or report should be double-spaced throughout (including quotations, notes, and the list of works cited), with no blank lines between paragraphs. The first line of each new paragraph is indented a half-inch on the left (or five spaces if you use a typewriter). Set-off quotations are indented one inch on the left.

Printing and fonts

Type or print; don't turn in handwritten formal work. Print on only one side of the page, in black ink. Use a plain serif or sans-serif font—no cursive fonts, for instance. Good serif choices are Times Roman and Palatino; good non-serif choices are Arial and Helvetica.

Traditional MLA style prefers underlining to italics, but this is gradually changing as high-quality printers become the norm. Use italics for emphasis if your teacher allows.

Page numbers

Starting with the first page, put page numbers a half-inch from the top edge of the paper, flush with the right margin. Type your last name before the page number (Harvey 1), in case the page comes loose. Word processors automate this process, so make sure you know how to use the pagination command.

Spaces between sentences

In the old days of typewriters and nonproportional fonts (in which every letter, from i to w, takes up the same space), the rule was to put two spaces between sentences to improve readability. But if you print from a computer, you should put just one space between sentences.

Heading

At the top of the first page of the essay (below the top margin, of course, and flush with the left margin), place your name, your professor's name, the course name or number (including section number if the course has multiple sections), and the date you're turning in the paper, each on a separate line with double-spacing throughout.

Title

Research papers don't need title pages. Instead, place a centered title on the first page of the essay, separated from the heading by a blank line. If the title extends to a second line, double space between the lines and again to the first line of the essay (with no blank line). Don't italicize or underline the title (though if you use a book title in your paper's title, you should italicize or underline it).

Make sure your essay has a meaningful title that is more than a bare-bones identifier (not Essay #1 or Essay on Management). It should signal to the reader what your essay is about (like Deming's Total Quality Management Perspective or Jefferson on Slavery). A common academic device to create a bit of elegance is to use a title and subtitle, separating them with a colon. Typically the titles are balanced so that one is broad and the other more focused, or one uses a key term and the other starts to delimit and explain it:

Often you'll see a pithy quoted fragment before the colon:

Here's an example of the first page of a paper, MLA-style:

Late corrections

Sometimes you will discover mistakes in what you thought was a final draft, when you no longer have time to print out a corrected version. In such cases, you should hand-correct the printed version (that's one reason to double-space essays). It's usually okay to turn in an essay with one or two such corrections. How to do it: Cross out the mistake with a single horizontal line. Mark the insertion point with a caret (^). Neatly write in the correction above the printed line. Don't write below the line or in the margin. If you need to make a more substantial correction, make a clean printout.

Basic MLA citation style

The basic MLA citation style consists of a brief in-text citation keyed to a reference in an alphabetical list of works included at the end of the paper. A complete citation thus has two parts: (1) an in-text citation in the body of the paper, and (2) a bibliographic reference in the list of works cited. The point is to improve readability by minimizing interruptions in the body of the paper.

A pointer to the specific passage quoted, denoted usually by a page number, is included in the in-text citation, along with an identifier (generally the author's name) that points to a specific reference. The reference includes the full bibliographic information one would need to find the book in a library.

Let's look first at how in-text citations work, then at the list of works cited and its references, and then turn to detailed formats for citing and referencing different kinds of sources.

In-text citations

A typical in-text citation is simple: an author and usually a page reference (with no addition like page or pg. or p.): (Colleran 99). In-text citations are often referred to as parenthetical citations, but this term can be misleading because some citations don't require a parenthetical element:

And some need only a parenthetical:

The author's last name is sufficient to point the reader to a unique reference in the list of works cited (this reference is to the whole work, which is why a specific page reference is not included. If a specific passage were being referred to, it should be denoted by a page reference).

Most often in-text citations comprise two elements: a signal phrase or pointer in the body of the paper, and a parenthetical:

The signal phrase and parenthetical should divide up, not duplicate, the citation data:

It's okay to repeat information if additional material between the signal phrase and the parenthetical might make for ambiguity:

You'll find more detailed advice on using signal phrases to introduce quotations in the previous section, on Effective quoting, and see the detailed examples below for lots of help with citing different kinds of sources.

List of works cited

MLA style requires you to list your sources with full bibliographic information at the end of the paper. The usual title is "Works Cited." The list begins on a new page and continues the paper's page numbers. Like other page numbers, the page number appears in the upper-right hand corner, half an inch from the top and flush with the right margin (all margins are one inch).

The title is centered, an inch from the top of the page. Double-space between title and the first entry. Each entry begins flush with the left margin, and is then indented half an inch (learn how to do hanging indents in your word processor of choice to manage this; in a pinch, indent five spaces from the left margin). The whole list is double-spaced with no blank line between entries.

Bibliographic references

The point of a bibliographic reference is to allow your readers to track down your sources. As the examples in the list of works cited above show, you need to include standard bibliographic information: author, title, place of publication, publisher, and year of publication.

Titles

Get the title from the title page, not the cover or another source. Give spelled-out equivalents of symbols like &. When a title consists of two phrases on separate lines, join them with a colon. For example, this title page would be listed as Shakespeare Reread: The Texts in New Contexts.

Alphabetization

Alphabetize the list by author, or for any anonymous works by title (ignoring but not deleting A, An, and The).

Capitalization

Capitalize all significant words, regardless of how the original source is capitalized. Capitalize most words except articles (a, an, the), prepositions (of, to, in, against), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet), and the to in infinitives. But if any of these occurs as the first or last word of a title or subtitle, capitalize it.

Underlining/italics and quotation marks

The titles of works published independently (not within another volume) are typically formatted with underlining (or, increasingly often, italics). These include books, plays, long poems published as books, pamphlets, newspapers, magazines, journals, films, radio and television programs, web sites, CDs, software, ballets, operas, paintings, and other works and artifacts that stand on their own.

The titles of works published within other works are typically placed in quotation marks. These include articles, essays, stories, short poems, chapters, encyclopedia entries, sections of online documents, songs, and individual episodes of broadcast programs.

Titles in titles

Underlined (or italicized) titles in quoted titles. Retain the underlining: "Death in Death in Venice."

Quoted titles in quoted title. Switch to single quotation marks for the inner title: "Ironic reversal in Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit.'"

Underlined titles in underlined titles. Don't underline or use quotation marks: Stowe's Trumpet: Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Civil War.

Quoted title in underlined title. Keep the quotation marks: "Sailing to Byzantium" and Modern Memory

If a quotation-mark title ends a sentence, put the period (but not other punctuation marks like question marks) inside the quotation mark.

Exceptions

Titles of sacred writings like the Koran or Bible (and all books therein) are not underlined or italicized: "The story of Moses is told mainly in Exodus and Deuteronomy."

Neither are the names of laws or other political documents (the U.S. Constitution), musical compositions like symphonies or concertos (Beethoven's Symphony no. 3), series, societies, buildings, conferences, and courses.

The divisions of a work (preface, introduction, foreword, act, scene, canto, section, etc.) are not underlined or put in quotation marks; nor are they capitalized when used in the text of a paper: "Claudius dominates act 4 of the play."

Shortened titles

You may use a shortened form of a title, or an abbreviation, in your text after referring to it once by its full title. Use an obvious short form. The MLA Handbook, which this section on titles closely follows, provides a lengthy list of standard abbreviations for familiar literary works.

MLA citation and reference details

Nuts and Bolts helps with many questions about MLA citations and references. Each entry below shows how to format the in-text citation and the bibliographic reference, and provides examples when needed. For full details and hundreds of special cases, consult the MLA Handbook.

Here are the types of sources detailed below (the next section treats Internet sources):

1. Basic book format

Citation

Reference

Note the abbreviation UP for "University Press."

2. Basic article format

Citation

Reference

3. Two or more works by the same author

Citation. If you cite more than work by a scholar in your paper, you must point to the right one in a particular citation by adding a short version of the work's title. This can be done in several ways (note details like the absence or presence of commas):

Reference. For second and subsequent entries by the same author(s) type three hyphens instead of the name. Sort alphabetically by title (disregarding but not deleting The, A, and An).

But do not use --- for any case where the same person is cited as part of a different coauthorship. The three hyphens are never used in combination with a spelled-out name (not --- and William Harrison).

4. A chapter from an anthology

Citation. No different than a normal citation: (Moore 195). Cite the author of the specific text you wish to refer to in the citation, not the editor of the whole book (unless you're referring to the whole book, of course).

Reference

Anthologies often republish works first published earlier. If you wish to note when a work was first published, put the original year after the title.

5. Multiple citations from an anthology

Citation. No different than a normal citation: (Moore 195).

Reference. Use cross-references in the list of works cited. The anthology gets a full bibliographic reference, and short cross-references are provided for its articles.

6. An anonymous work

Citation. Don't use "Anonymous." Cite a short version of the title, making sure that it will direct your reader to the right reference in the alphabetized list.

Reference

Remember that A, An, and The are disregarded when alphabetizing the list of works cited.

7. An article from an anonymous reference book

Citation. Cite the title or a short version.

Reference

8. An introduction to a book

Citation. Cite the author of the introduction, not the author of the whole work.

Reference

9. Two authors with the same last name

Citation. In a parenthetical citation add the first initial to the citation: (C. Parker 217-18). If you cite the author in the text rather than with a parenthetical, use the full first name.

Reference. Alphabetize by last name and then first name.

If one of the authors is part of a collaboration, there will be no confusion from referring to last names alone, and no additions are needed (Wilson; Wilson and Adkins).

10. A work by two or three authors

Citation. Give the last name of each author: (Wildavsky and Drake 44).

Reference. The second and third names are formatted first-name first.

11. A work by more than three authors

Citation. Either give the first author's last name followed by et al. (for et alii or alia, "and others"), or give all the last names.

Reference. You may give all the names, or just the first followed by et al.

12. A work by a corporate author

Citation. Treat the organization as the author, and cite the name or a short version of it: (Modern Language Association)

Reference

13. A multivolume work—referencing the whole work

Citation. For a citation from a particular volume include the volume number, separated from the page reference by a colon. Don't use volume, vol., page, or p.: (Churchill 6: 269).

If you cite an entire volume, use the abbreviation vol. and a comma: (Churchill, vol. 6). If you integrate the citation into a sentence, spell out the word: "In volume 6 Churchill describes the end of the war and the return of peace."

Reference

14. A multivolume work—referencing one volume

Citation. As if you're citing a single book: (Churchill 269).

Reference

If the volume has an individual title, you may cite it without any reference to the other volumes.

15. Literary works

The custom for citing classic works is a bit different, for a good reason. There are many editions of these works available, so your citation should allow readers to find the original passage in any edition, for instance by including book and chapter numbers after a page reference.

Citation

Reference

16. Poetry

Citation. Omit page numbers when citing classic poems. Instead, cite by textual division (act, scene, canto, book, part, etc.) and line, with periods separating the numbers. However the numbers are formatted in the original, use Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3). Don't label the divisions in parentheticals or use l or ll. to denote lines, because these can be confused with numbers (though you may use division names in the text: "In the sixth canto Dante meets a man transformed into a pig"). If you're only citing line numbers, use the words line or lines followed by the numbers:

Reference

. . . Quoting poetry

You can quote up to three lines of poetry by incorporating the quotation within your text. To indicate line breaks, use a slash with a space on each side ( / ):

If you quote more than three lines, you need to set them off the quotation using the same formats as with other set-off quotations, including a one-inch left indent. You also need to reproduce the poem's appearance as best you can, which means attention to line indentations:

If the citation wouldn't fit on the same line as the last line of poetry, start it on a new line, flush with the right margin.

If you choose to begin quoting in the middle of a line of verse, convey that with extra indentation. Ellipsis follows the same format as for prose quotations, except that if you skip one or more whole lines of verse, you need to denote that with a line of spaced periods about the same length as the lines of verse:

If a line of verse is too long to fit on a single line in your paper, you may either reduce the left indentation or continue the line with a further indentation of a quarter inch.

17. Drama

As with poetry, omit page numbers when citing classic drama. Instead, cite by textual division (act, scene, etc.) and line, with periods separating the numbers. However the numbers are formatted in the original, use Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3). In parentheticals don't label the divisions or use l or ll. to denote lines, because these can be confused with numbers (but you may use division names in the text: "Claudius dominates act 4 of the play").

Plays may be written in prose or verse. Prose presents fewer difficulties, and quotations from prose drama follow the usual MLA conventions for prose quotations. Quoting from verse, however, is more complicated. It's helpful to understand something about the conventions of how verse is written and printed, and how lines are counted.

Shakespeare and many other classic dramatists wrote most often in iambic pentameter, with 10-syllable lines comprising five feet of two syllables each. Such a line doesn't necessarily end when a different character speaks. Line 5.6.100 above, for instance, consists of three utterances. Note that Line 99's formatting indicates it's completing a line already begun.

Citation. Most often you'll put the work's title in the text, with a line reference in a parenthetical. The following example assumes that the author and text have already been established, as would usually be the case.

Reference. There's no need to put the original publication information in unless that's germane to your point.

. . . Quoting drama

If you are only quoting one character and not more than three lines, you may put the quotation within quotation marks in your text. If you're quoting a prose passage, treat it like any prose quotation; if a verse passage, treat it like poetry:

If you're quoting dialogue or more than three lines of a single speech, set off the quotation. Begin each speech with the character's name in all capitals, indented one inch and punctuated with a period. Subsequent lines of that speech are indented a further quarter-inch. For other details follow the usual formats for prose and poetry.

18. The Bible

Citation. Cite chapter and verse, not page number: (Genesis 5.14).

Reference. It's important to indicate the version used, not publisher information, unless it's a scholarly edition.

19. A government publication

Citation. As usual, though you will need to make sure your author pointer leads to the right citation (most gracefully, usually, by putting some of the multilevel author information in the text).

Reference. If you're uncertain of the author, treat the issuing government agency or body as author, starting at the top level of the government and working down (Cong. stands for Congress).

For subsequent documents issued by the same government, use ---. Note that this is an exception to the 3-hyphen rule: you may combine hyphens and names.

For the Congressional Record use the abbreviation Cong. Rec. and give only the date and page numbers: Cong. Rec. 7 May 2000: 17528-639.

For other congressional documents , include the number and session of Congress, the house (S stands for Senate, H and HR for House of Representatives), and the type and number of the publication. Types of congressional publications include public laws (P.L. 106-4), bills (S 102, HR 433), resolutions (S. Res. 27, H. Res. 8), reports (S. Rept. 106-350, H. Rept. 89), and documents (S. Doc. 117, H. Doc. 328).

Remember that titles of government publications are not italicized.

20. A magazine article

Some periodicals (such as The Economist) routinely use different titles for articles on the contents page and at the beginning of the article itself. In such cases, use the title from the contents page.

Citation. As usual.

Reference

21. An anonymous magazine article

Citation. Identify by a short version of the title.

Reference

Citation. As usual.

Reference

23. An unsigned editorial

Citation. Identify by a short title.

Reference

24. A letter to the editor

Citation. As usual.

Reference

A published reply to a letter is identified as such with the phrase "Reply to letter of. . . ." As with other descriptive terms, the phrase is not underlined, italicized, or placed in quotation marks.

25. A pamphlet

Treat a pamphlet like a book.

26. More than one work in a single reference

Citation. Use semicolons to separate the citations: (Pitkin 38-41; Pocock 203).

Reference. As usual for each work.

But avoid putting too many works in a single reference. It's usual to use one note per work. If you wish to group several works together, treat them in a note rather than with an in-text citation.

27. A forthcoming work

Citation. As usual.

Reference. Provide as much information as possible.

28. A work published before 1900

Citation. As usual.

Reference. Publisher information is not needed.

29. A translation

Citation. As usual.

Reference

Information on the original publication is not required but may be added at the end of the entry.

If your focus and citations are primarily to the translator's comments or choice of words rather than to the translated work, refer to the translator.

30. A second or subsequent edition

Citation. As usual.

Reference

The name of an editor, translator, or compiler (if any) is placed before the edition.

31. Indirect sources

Citation. Whenever possible quote from original sources, but if you need to quote from an indirect source, put the abbreviation qtd. in ("quoted in") before the indirect source you cite.

Reference

You may add the original publication information in a note.

32. Missing bibliographic information

Citation. As usual.

Reference. Some published works don't name the publisher, place or date of publication, pagination, or other information you may need. In such cases, if you can supply the missing information do so, putting brackets around the information you add.

Use the following abbreviations for information you can't supply:

Put the abbreviation where the information would customarily go.

Sendak, Maurice. Where the Wild Things Are. New York: Harper, 1963. N. pag.

If you're uncertain about the accuracy of the information, use a question mark. If a date is approximate, precede it with c. for circa ("about").

MLA Internet citations and references

Many citations of online sources in college papers are inadequate. Here's an all-too-common example: www.hoovers.com.

What's missing? Lots—information about the type of online resource, a specific URL to a particular document, and data on author, title, when online material was posted, and when you retrieved it (that means when you downloaded or printed the information, not when you wrote it into your paper). It's important to provide dates because the web is a dynamic medium, with content and web sites constantly changing.

References to online documents follow the same basic format as other MLA references: alphabetization by author, a title, and publication information. One difference: references to online documents typically have two dates, the date the material was posted or updated, and the date it was retrieved. Since the web is a dynamic medium with content and web sites constantly changing, it's helpful to your reader to note posting and retrieval dates.

What are you citing?

If you are going to be citing just one portion of the site, it will be more helpful to your reader to direct him to the specific section and URL:

But if you cite several different sections from one site, then things can get a bit complicated. If the citations are to different sections of a particular document, then make the bibliographic reference to the whole document (like the first example above) and use in-text signal phrases to direct your reader more specifically:

The author's name would point to the particular reference; the title in quotation marks would denote a section within the whole work in the reference. (Naturally, if the list of works cited has more than one work by the author, or works by other authors with the same last name, you'll have to add more specific information to the citation (see above for more help with this).

But if the citations are to different documents or kinds of online material—especially with different authors—it's best to put in a separate reference for each, even if they're accessed from the same central page. Keep in mind the underlying rationale: what will make it easier for readers to find your sources for themselves?

The page problem

One complication of online documents is that they usually lack page numbers, so it's not easy to point readers to particular passages. In order to direct readers as closely as possible to the right source passage, use whatever divisions the work is formatted in. Look for division numbers, section titles or for words like Introduction and Conclusion (see above for MLA style on quotation marks and underlining or italics for different kinds of titles).

What's your source?

Another source of confusion with online documents is the profusion of uncontrolled copies of texts. With the way the Internet works, anyone can post any document, accurate or not, for public access. In general, make sure that if you're quoting from a text you try to track down the copyright holder or other responsible organization, rather than taking the text and URL from a personal page or other idiosyncratic source. For instance, cite government documents from the Government Printing Office's website (http://www.access.gpo.gov/) or similar source. Doing so increases the chances you'll get an accurate copy, and it reassures readers about your scholarly care. For more on online research, see the Nuts and Bolts section on Research and the Internet.

Elements of a reference to an online source

The MLA Handbook provides a detailed list of possible items to include in a reference, here listed in order of usual appearance. As the examples above show, not all the items need be included in any single reference, but this list will help you decide how to construct and order references for which you don't find examples here:

1. Name of author or other person responsible for the work (editor, translator, etc.), denoted by the usual MLA abbreviation (ed., trans., etc.—see the various examples above).
2. Title of short work (article, essay, etc.) in a larger database or work, in quotation marks.
3. Title of a book or other self-standing document, in italics or underlined.
4. Name of editor, translator, etc. of a book (unless used earlier), following usual MLA formats.
5. Publication information for a print version.
6. Title of the web site, database, periodical, or scholarly project, etc. (italicized or underlined); or for untitled and untitleable sites, a descriptive term like Home page.
7. Name of editor or person responsible for the web site, database, periodical, or scholarly project, etc.
8. Version number (if not part of the title); or volume or issue number.
9. Most recent date of posting or updating.
10. Name of the organization(s) responsible for or associated with the web site.
11. Retrieval date (date you retrieved the information), in the format 1 Jan. 2000.

12. URL (in angle brackets and underlined).

Here are the types of sources detailed below:

1. Private or personal web site

Citation. As usual.

Reference

2. Organizational or corporate web site

Citation. Cite by author or short title.

Reference

As noted earlier, don't be too quick to give a corporate web site as the URL for specific documents. If you cite several documents or pages emanating from an organization's web site, it's almost always more useful and workable to provide a reference for each separate text.

3. Online book

Citation. As usual.

Reference

4. Article in an online journal or magazine

Citation. As usual.

Reference

5. Newspaper article

Citation. As usual.

Reference

Other types of texts—editorials, letters to the editor, reviews, and so on, parallel the traditional citation with the inclusion of online information (most importantly retrieval date and URL) instead of page information.

6. Government publication

Citation. By author, as usual. But see above for the complexities of citing government publications.

Reference. See above for more help formatting references to government publications.

7. Short work in larger work or database

Citation. As usual—by author or, if necessary, short title.

Reference

8. Other web materials

Citation. As usual—by author or, if necessary, short title.

Reference. When possible put a descriptive phrase after the title (e.g., chart, MP3, video, photograph, map).

9. Forum or conference posting

Citation. As usual.

Reference

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