How to Cite? A step-by-step Guide on using 3 most Popular Formatting Styles in Research

Choosing the right formatting style is crucial to the look and feel of research documents. Once you are done with penning down your research thesis or dissertation, you need to format it. Although each university demands a particular type of formatting style, the most popular formatting styles are noted as APA, MLA, and CMS.

1. APA Style – The APA (American Psychological Association) style, developed in the year 1929, is a US-based scientific and professional organization for psychologists, used by professionals and scholars in multiple disciplines including economics, business, sociology, and many more. An APA citation constitutes two parts: In-text citation used to reference another source in the body of the text and a reference list.

Creating and formatting the citations

• Insert an author’s surname and the date of publication within parentheses after a direct quote
• Insert an in-text citation at the end of the sentence where a source has contributed but was not a direct quote
• Insert the date immediately after the surname
• Include page numbers within the parentheses (after the date)
• When citing a source with three to five authors, include all surnames for the first in-text citation, then use the first author’s surname followed by et al. for subsequent citations
• When citing six or more authors – use the first author’s surname followed by et al. for all citations
• Provide your appendices on a separate page after the reference list

2. MLA Style

MLA format developed by the Modern Language Association was developed as a means for professionals and scholars.

While creating In-text citations in MLA style, consider the following guidance:

• Place the author’s name either in parentheses or within the sentence
• Place on direct quotations in a left-indented block
• Indicate the source by the author and page number (s) in the parentheses
• For works with two authors, include the last name of both the authors and connect with ‘and’
• For works with three or more authors, use the first author’s last name followed by et al
• If the title in the works cited list is in italics, italicize the words from the title in the In-text citation.
• If you are using information from a single source more than once in succession, you can use a simplified In-text citation

3. CMS Style

Chicago Manual of Style was created to help researchers cite the sources. CMS, currently in 16th edition, consists 2 types of referencing styles.

• Notes and bibliography

Creating bibliography, footnotes, and endnotes in Chicago style-

• The citation list or bibliography must be single spaced.
• The last names of the authors must be arranged alphabetically.
• Footnote generally lists the author, title, and facts of publication and each should be separated by commas. Titles are capitalized, titles of books and journals are italicized, titles of chapters are presented in Romans and enclosed in double quotation marks.
• Endnotes will be compiled at the end of each chapter or at the end of the entire paper and should be numbered consecutively.

2. Author – Date

• Include the last name of the author and the year of publication in parentheses, with each element separated by a comma. Include a page number if you are quoting a particular section of a source.
• Place the parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence referring to the source, and place just inside a mark of punctuation.
• When citing works with more than three authors, only the name of the first author is used, followed by et al.
• Compile a list of all source material in a reference list at the end of your assignment.

---