Style Guides for Writing
Style Guides provide formatting guidelines for research papers, including citations and bibliographies. The style guides highlighted below are the most common style guides in use in academia today.
Consult your professor before selecting a style guide for your assignments.
The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th Edition
The venerable, time-tested guide to style, usage, and grammar--an indispensable reference informing the editorial canon with sound, definitive advice. Now in its 18th edition! More than 1.75 million copies sold! Much has happened in the years since the publication of the seventeenth edition of The Chicago Manual of Style. The world has transformed, and the Manual has risen to meet the moment. The eighteenth edition of this classic guide for writers, editors, and publishers is the most extensive revision in two decades. Every chapter has been reexamined with diversity and accessibility in mind, and major changes include updated and expanded coverage of pronoun use and inclusive language, revised guidelines on capitalization, a broader range of examples, new coverage of Indigenous languages, and expanded advice on making publications accessible to people with disabilities. The Manual's traditional focus on nonfiction has been expanded to include fiction and other creative genres in coverage of topics such as punctuation and dialogue, and the needs of self-published authors receive wider attention. The citation chapters have been thoroughly reorganized for the benefit of new and experienced users alike, and the key concepts for editing mathematics have been integrated into the chapters where they will be most useful to generalists. Evolving technologies--from open-access publishing models to AI--are covered throughout. And naturally, there are some well-considered updates to familiar rules, including changes intended to align the Manual's recommendations more closely with real-world usage. As with every new edition, devotees of the Manual will find much to discover and ponder.
Call Number: Available OnlineISBN: 9780226817972Publication Date: 2024-09-19
The ACS Guide to Scholarly CommunicationISBN: 9780841235830Publication Date: 2020ACS style is used for chemistry and other sciences.
ASA Style Guide, 3rd ed.Call Number: HM586 .A54 2007 Central Reference ARMSTD-4FLISBN: 0912764309The ASA style guide is used in some sociology courses.
MLA Handbook, 9th edition
Relied on by generations of writers, the MLA Handbook is published by the Modern Language Association and is the only official, authorized book on MLA style. The ninth edition builds on the MLA's unique approach to documenting sources using a template of core elements?facts common to most sources, like author, title, and publication date?that allows writers to cite any type of work, from books, e-books, and journal articles in databases to song lyrics, online images, social media posts, dissertations, and more. With this focus on source evaluation as the cornerstone of citation, MLA style promotes the skills of information and digital literacy so crucial today. The many new and updated chapters make this edition the comprehensive, go-to resource for writers of research papers and anyone citing sources, from business writers, technical writers, and freelance writers and editors to student writers and the teachers and librarians working with them. Intended for a variety of classroom contexts?middle school, high school, and college courses in composition, communication, literature, language arts, film, media studies, digital humanities, and related fields?the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook offers ? New guidance on grammar, punctuation, capitalization, spelling, numbers, italics, and abbreviations ? A new chapter on principles of inclusive language ? Guidelines on setting up research papers in MLA format with updated advice on headings, lists, and title pages for group projects ? Revised, easy-to-use, step-by-step instructions for creating a list of works cited in MLA format ? A new appendix with hundreds of example works-cited-list entries by publication format, including websites, YouTube videos, interviews, and more ? Guidance on finding publication information in a variety of sources ? Newly revised explanations of in-text citations, including advice on how to cite multiple authors of a single work ? Detailed guidance on footnotes and endnotes ? Instructions on quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, and avoiding plagiarism ? Annotated bibliography examples ? Numbered sections keyed to a subject index for quick navigation ? Advanced tips for professional writers and scholars
Call Number: LB2369 .M52 2021 Central LibraryISBN: 9781603293518Publication Date: 2021-04-22
Publication Manual of the American Psychological AssociationCall Number: BF76.7 .P83 2010 Central LibraryISBN: 9781433805592Publication Date: 2009-07-15APA style commonly used in the social sciences.
Citing Sources?
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When you "cite" a source you are showing, within the body of your text, that you took the words or ideas from another place. |
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You also are providing a way for the reader (your professor) to locate the sources you relied on in your research. |
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Failure to acknowledge these sources can be considered plagiarism. |
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Remember that for whatever style you chose (in consultation with your professor), pay attention to the details and be consistent. Incorrect citations are just as bad as no citations at all! |
See the difference...
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The examples below demonstrate how the various elements of a book citation (author, title, publisher, and year) are arranged using three different style guides. |
APA, 6th ed.
Danesi, M. (2009). X-rated!: The power of mythic symbolism in popular culture.
New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
MLA, 7th ed.
Danesi, Marcel. 2009. X-Rated!: The power of mythic symbolism in popular culture.
New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Print.
Chicago
Danesi, Marcel. X-rated!: The Power of Mythic Symbolism in Popular Culture. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
I forgot my style guide...
Do you need to format a citation for your bibliography and can't find your style guide?
Check out the Library's Style Guides for Writing page for some online examples of properly formatted citations for a variety of citation styles.
Tutorials Anyone?
For more citation fun check out one of these great tutorials.
- Citing InformationTutorial courtesy of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
- The Citation GameLearn the various components of citations in ACS, APA, Chicago and MLA styles.
