COASTAL BEND COLLEGE: Citation Help

Different disciplines require different citation styles. Examples are APA, MLA, Chicago, Turabian, etc. APA from the American Psychological Association is typically the style you will use in Education.

• APA Style

  This is the official APA website, complete with guidance and examples to help you with formatting, in-text citations, and building your reference section. Hover over "Style and Grammar Guidelines" to get started.

• Purdue University's Online Writing Lab

  TAMU-CC's Writing Center also points to this source for help in citing.

• How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography | Cornell University Library

  APA Style approach for annotated bibliographies from Cornell University Library

• MLA Annotated Bibliography | Taft College

  Taft College's guide to how to creating an annotated bibliography in MLA Style (9th edition)

MIT provides a great example of the different citations styles:

Citing a source means that you show, within the body of your text, that you took words, ideas, figures, images, etc. from another place.

Citations are a short way to uniquely identify a published work (e.g. book, article, chapter, web site).  They are found in bibliographies and reference lists and are also collected in article and book databases.

Citations consist of standard elements, and contain all the information necessary to identify and track down publications, including:

• author name(s)
• titles of books, articles, and journals
• date of publication
• page numbers
• volume and issue numbers (for articles)

Citations may look different, depending on what is being cited and which style was used to create them. Choose an appropriate style guide for your needs.  Here is an example of an article citation using four different citation styles.  Notice the common elements as mentioned above:

Author - R. Langer

Article Title - New Methods of Drug Delivery

Source Title - Science

Volume and issue - Vol 249, issue 4976

Publication Date - 1990

Page numbers - 1527-1533

American Chemical Society (ACS) style:

Langer, R. New Methods of Drug Delivery. Science 1990, 249, 1527-1533.

IEEE Style:

R. Langer, "New Methods of Drug Delivery," Science, vol. 249, pp. 1527-1533, SEP 28, 1990.

American Psychological Association  (APA) style:

Langer, R. (1990). New methods of drug delivery. Science, 249(4976), 1527-1533.

Modern Language Association (MLA) style:

Langer, R. "New Methods of Drug Delivery." Science 249.4976 (1990): 1527-33.

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