Part 7

Styling the References

When submitting essays to be graded in academia, you will soon discover than many teachers and professors are very particular about the formatting an style of the essay itself, and particularly how the reference (Bibliography) gives specific credit where it is due. After all, these experts themselves are sometime the ones being quoted or having their works summarized, so giving credit accurately is respectful and expected.

The most widely used styles are as follows:

Modern Language Association (MLA Style)

• used in most academic style essays and documentation in the humanities.

• Commonly used in English essays and other modern languages

• Used in language related studies such as media studies, cultural studies, comparative literature and literary criticisms

• features a Works Cited Page which lists all the works cited in the essay, even those in footnotes or endnotes.

• Placed at the end of the main body of the work, essay or article.

• Brief citations in parentheses must include: author(s), short titles, page numbers used. 

• Citations are keyed to direct the reader to the title of the work, in alphabetical order, and the page number for easier locating

• When more than one author of the same name is cited, a first name or initial is sufficient

Format for MLA

• for ease of flow, maintain a series of guidelines when using a word processor

• choose a easy-to-read standard font and align to the left rather than justified. Centre titles.

• Use double spacing and don’t hyphenate

• Use one space after periods and other punctuations marks.

• Don’t allow your computer to automatically underline your URLs with the hyperlink feature

• Use italics for website addresses, in brackets

Citations

• title this section “Works Cited” in a normal font

• keep entries alphabetized and double-spaced

• date the entries consistently

• keep consistent

Books – author’s surname, first name, book title punctuated, place of publication: publisher, year.

Periodical/Magazine/Journal – author’s surname, first name, “Title of the Article” in quotations, title of periodical, date of periodical, pages.

Dictionary/ Encyclopedia – author surname, first name, “Title of Entry “ in quotation, Title of reference book, the edition, year of publication.

Website – author of webpage, “Article Title” in quotations, title of webpage, date of publication it was last modified. Institution it might be associated with, date or retrieval.

American Psychological Association (APA style)

• used mostly for research papers

• common in manuscripts and theses in the social sciences

• uses parentheses citations within the text

• uses headings to organize article and gives them ranking structure ( learn more about this from an APA guide)

• names and order of heading are specific, as are tables, footnotes, figures and appendices.

Chicago Manual of Style (CMS)

• used mostly in humanities, history and widely in the publishing industry

• commonly uses endnotes or footnotes, followed by a Bibliography

• concerns editorial practice and its concerns

• does not use references in the text

Turabian Styling

• popular for research papers, and very similar to CMS, but more simplified

• more specific, and preferred, for papers written for a class or course of study rather than for publication

• many more journals are accepting of the newer Turabian style

• used in art history, women’s studies, theology, musicology and history

Harvard Referencing System

• brief citations are given within the text itself

• provide the author’s name and year of publication, a page number, which refers to the work listed a the end of the essay

• full citations are collected under a “References” section at the end of the essay

Vancouver Style

• references are numbered in the order in which they are mentioned in the text.

• Subsequent references are indented in sequence, particularly for use with data or tables

• Referencing a journal includes : author’s name, title of article, journal title abbreviated, year of publication, (month and day if applicable) volume number, issue number, page numbers

Council of Biology Editors (CBE)

• uses two systems : one is author- date system, one is citation-sequence system with a numerical listing of sources based on how they are used in the essay

With all forms of referencing, it is crucial to know exactly which style of referencing is required in the assignment. If done incorrectly, a meticulous person who is assessing your essay will likely be distracted, and even annoyed, if the correct protocol is not followed. This can led to a bad impression on all your hard work and effort.

Looking for examples? Every source you are using will have footnotes, endnotes and cited references. Use these!