Research Paper Basics

Citation Basics

These rules are the same for both APA and MLA.

What “cited” means

For once, I’ll give you a definition from dictionary.com:

1. to quote (a passage, book, author, etc.), especially as an authority:
   He cited the Constitution in his defense.
2. to mention in support, proof, or confirmation; refer to as an example:
   He cited many instances of abuse of power.

MLA calls its bibliographic page Works Cited, and APA uses the term References, but the idea is the same:

• If you referred to someone’s idea, summarized, paraphrased, or quoted a passage, you document that on the last page(s).
• If you merely looked at it but didn’t use it, you don’t put it there because you didn’t cite it.

A two-part system

References for APA and MLA (as well as others such as Vancouver, OSCOLA, IEEE, AMA, ACS, NLM, AAA, and APSA) are a two-part system:

• On the last page(s) there is very complete information about each item being cited, and
• there is something brief in the main text to tell the reader which item on the bibliographic page is being cited.

Both pieces must be there, and they must be part of the same citation format.

You don’t get to invent

Formats for all the citation systems are well-documented, and you can find the three major ones (APA, MLA, and Chicago) in any good grammar handbook as well as online resources such as Noodletools.

Here is a sample of several citations plus a Works Cited sample to show you what you are aiming at.

Note #1: Some citation formats don’t allow you to cite some categories of information. If you are writing an APA paper and you want to cite a personal letter or a ballet performance, don’t make something up or borrow an idea from MLA. You cannot cite that sort of thing in APA.

Note #2: This same “don’t invent” rule goes for your page layout. Do not get creative with typefaces, etc. Just do the official format and save your creativity for the content of your writing.

Learn how to format your paper

The main body

Follow this link for how-to instructions for the four main word processing programs. You are going to click on the link which says, “Here is the link for the tutorial for …” below the introduction for your particular program.

• Yes, you really do have to indent each paragraph ½" and most teachers here think you should have learned that one years ago.
• Each program has its own way to put your last name and page number at the top of each page. Read the instructions.
• Each program has its own way to insert the indented paragraph for long quotations (4+ lines in MLA, 40+ words in APA). Just read down for the instructions.

Your paper really should not be just an assortment of long quotations. You need to do some writing and thinking too. George Orwell had this to say about over-quoting:

Modern writing at its worst […] consists in gumming together long strips of words which have already been set in order by someone else, and making the results presentable by sheer humbug. (from “Politics and the English Language”)

That last page

The formatting is difficult, and most students have trouble.

• The Works Cited (or References) page always begins a new sheet. (“Here is the link for the tutorial for …” shows you how.)
• The entries are “hanging indent,” which means that the first line goes out to the margin and everything else sits ½" in from the left. (“Here is the link for the tutorial for …” shows you how.)
• The items are alphabetized, not sorted by order of appearance or by medium