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Just starting your research? Review the basics here.

For more in-depth citation information visit this guide:

Annotated Bibliographies


An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and documents. Each citation is followed by a brief (usually about 150 words) descriptive or evaluative paragraph called the annotation. The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited.

Modern Language Association (MLA)


The Modern Language Association (MLA) provides a method for source documentation that is used in most humanities courses. The humanities place emphasis on authorship, so most MLA citations involve recording the author’s name in the physical text. The author’s name is also the first to appear on the “Works Cited” page at the end of an essay.

Quick reference and examples can be found below in these guides created by several other universities:

American Psychological Association (APA)


The APA (American Psychological Association) Style Manual is most commonly used by writers of social science papers. It offers examples for the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations, tables, and reference pages.

Quick reference and examples can be found below in these guides created by APA itself, and other universities:

Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) & Turabian


The Chicago Manual of Style includes 2 documentation styles: the Notes-Bibliography System (NB), used by those in literature, history, and the arts, and the Author-Date System, which is similar in content, slightly different in form, and preferred in the social sciences.

In addition to consulting The Chicago Manual of Style (16th ed.) for more information, students may also find it useful to consult Kate L. Turabian's Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations  (8th ed.). Often called the "Turabian" style, it resembles the two patterns of documentation but includes alterations geared to papers written by students.

Quick reference and examples can be found below in these guides created by several other universities:

American Sociological Association (ASA)


The American Sociological Association is the leading professional organization for sociologists and is often used in sociology literature.

Quick reference and examples can be found below in these guides created by other universities:

American Medical Association (AMA)


The American Medical Association Manual of Style, 10th edition, is the authoritative guide for writing AMA style papers, with detailed information on how to format papers, cite sources, and prepare an article for publication.

Quick reference and examples can be found below in these guides created by several other universities: