Research Paper Basics

Some Citation Myths to Forget

These apply to both MLA and APA citations.

• No, it is not OK to use the APA in-text citation format with an MLA Works Cited page. (Or vice versa, though that seems to much less common.)
• No, a bare website address is not enough for a Works Cited or References page entry.
• No, a bare website address is not appropriate for an in-text citation either.
• If your piece appears in an anthology, the editor is not the author. Neither is the publishing company.
• If your source does not have a listed author (very rare, by the way), you do not invent something like “Anonymous” or “N.A.” Just begin your entry with the next item (usually the title of the piece).
• In general, if you invent a citation format, you will always be wrong. Don’t make stuff up.
• If you came up with a brilliant idea, then wrote it down, you don’t have to cite yourself.
• MLA Works Cited entries are not in order of appearance, nor are APA References page entries. They are simply alphabetized. (These are not the credits at the end of a movie.)
• Neither MLA nor APA uses an index number system to hook up the in-text citations with the last page. (You’re thinking of the IEEE format, from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Save that one for your electrical engineering courses.)