Ask any members of the BORED team and they will tell you how much of a dork I am about citation styles and formatting. I have been knee-deep in this obsession since sophomore year when I took my “History Methods” course with Professor Briggs, a class that is almost completely about how to properly cite scholarly works (something that I think more than just History Majors need to have under their academic toolbelt). This was the first topic that came to my head when I was brainstorming blog–post ideas, and I hope that my love for correctly citing sources transmits through this page and into your beautiful hearts.
General Advice on Citations:
1. Always check in with a professor
Before we even touch the types of styles there are and the ways you should be conducting your source research, it is imperative that I tell you to check in with your professors about what they prefer. Some professors are very chill and choose to leave the citing adventure up to their pupils, as they know different styles are preferred by different folks, but some will rotate their head 180 degrees if they even hear you mention APA, so just save yourself the trouble and check in with them if it seems unclear.
2. Ask a librarian
Once you’ve been given your professor’s “OK” on the citation style you need to use, head down to the library for in–person advice! Librarians are one of the best and most underused resources on our campus, so use this link to become acquainted with the librarian who is connected to your major/minor/studies and chat with them if you have questions. Along with their wealth of knowledge, there are also multiple physical, up-to-date handbooks with every imaginable source cited in their respective style in our Howe Library, so make use of those, too. If you are like me and prefer to have something to guide you even when you are away from the library, you can use this incredible help page on the UVM Libraries page, Citation Help, for online examples of correct citations in multiple styles.
3. Pay attention to grammar and punctuation
This is a nonnegotiable when citing sources, and it can make or break your references/works cited/bibliography. Citation styles are updated frequently, but as long as all of yours follow the same style and type of format, you should be all set. Your page/s of cited sources at the bottom of your research should also always have a hanging indent on each source, as it helps break up where each new addition begins and ends, respectively. Additionally, make sure that your in–text citations align with the style you are prescribed/that you choose. In Chicago, I frequently utilize Word’s footnote tab, but when I’ve had to dabble in MLA (curses) for my English papers, and with that style footnotes are not necessary, so I begrudgingly add parenthesis when appropriate.
Chicago example
Because I am feeling particularly inspired by this piece, I will share an example of how to cite a book in Chicago Turubian for readers to see what differences it makes to have proper formatting. If I wanted to cite The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, I would check the physical book that I had a copy of, and write it in this format: [Author Last Name, Author First Name. Title of Book. Publisher Name, Date of Publication.]. It is important that you pay close attention to where the required punctuation is, as the commas and periods are not just meant to separate categories, but to tell the reader whether or not this citation is a bibliographic entry [Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. Penguin Books, 1939.], a long note [John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (Penguin Books, 1939), 45.] (which would be the first featured reference of the source in your writing), or a short note [Steinbeck, Grapes, 45.] (which would appear after the first note was made).
APA example
For a book in APA, the formatting would be: [Author Last Name, A. A., & Author, B.B. (copyright year). Book Title (Xth ed., Vol. X). Publisher. DOI or URL.], so I would write The Grapes of Wrath as [Steinbeck, J. 1939. The Grapes of Wrath. Penguin Books.] in the References section. Also, in APA, if you are citing a quotation of 40 words or more, you need to block indent it so that it appears outside of your paragraph and in its own section, because chunky text is no good.
MLA EXAMPLE
Formatting of a book in MLA looks like: [Author Last Name, Author First Name. Book Title. Publisher, Date of Publication.], so our same book would look like this in the works cited section: [Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. Penguin Books, 1939.]
4. Stick to your guns
When formatting citations, no matter the style, it can get confusing and intimidating FAST. The best piece of advice I ever got about citing citations is that the general formatting should be close to, if not identical, to the prescribed methods, but the most important thing is that all of your citations line up in style. For example, I use Chicago Turubian style most frequently, as it is the style used by
historians (and it’s the best one, duh), but there are “artistic liberties” that you can take with it, like other citations. Sometimes when your project is truly massive and you have a hard time keeping all of your work in one doc, utilizing a tried and true citation organizer, like Zotero, is the way to go. Trust your gut, and you will go far, but if you ever have any questions, reach out to a professor, TA, librarian, or Writing Center Tutor who may know how to solve the problem you’re facing.
If you’ve read this far, or even any of this, I appreciate your time in indulging in my
nerding–out. I absolutely adore when things are in order, and I think having a clear and crisp collection of citations improves your work by miles. Whenever I read a peer’s paper for editing help, I am overjoyed to see well–done research with the addition of a diligently crafted list of sources correctly formatted. A little goes a long way, and even though citing can be tedious, it is imperative to showing the work you put into your own studies, as well as ensuring that those you are referencing get the adequate credit they are entitled to.
Happy (belated?) midterms, and good luck this academic year, Cats!
– BOREDie Rachel (preoccupied with her own bibliographies)
