Types of Modern Styles - MLA, Harvard, APA, Turabian, Chicago

   This page is introducing a few most common citation styles used for writing research papers and essays.

MLA style:

•  When referencing a book or an article you need to record references in this order: author, title of the source (book/article) title of the magazine or journal (in case it’s an article), volume, place of publication, name of the publishing house, date, pages from which you took information.

•  Italicize and underline titles of your sources. Titles of the articles, essays and poems should be taken in quotation marks.

•  Provide a 1,5″ space on all except the first line of each entry

•  Entries have to be alphabetized by author, if there is no author by the title

•  Internet sources have be recorded as follows: author, title underlines, date, date when accessed and its electronic address

•  Books or articles taken from an electronic library should be referenced as printed ones including the name of the database underlined, date it was accessed and the URL address.

References in parentheses:

•  All sources given in the body of the essay have to be listed in the bibliography

•  The first part of your citation should be author’s last name and the page you are referring to ( Ellis, 67)

•  You can also write author’s name in the text providing only a page number

•  If you cite something for the first time you can use author’s name, name of the book and a page number

•  If it’s an electronic edition and does not have page numbers, simply make a reference in the text “As Addison predicted..”

  APA Style is close to the style of references in parentheses. While citing original sources you need to include them in the text. There are three types of information that are required for a proper APA style citation. You have to always include the author's last name and the date a certain work was published. Page number needs to be placed in a citation only if you are including a direct quote from the book/article.

   Harvard citation style is thought to be one of the most convenient citation styles. It is commonly referred to as author-date style. The two things you need are the author’s name and the date of book’s publication. The reference is recorded at the end of the sentences before you the period. You can also include the author’s name in the text and the year of the publication will follow in parenthesis.

  Chicago and Turabian styles provide you with a choice between two systems of referencing: Notes and bibliography that are numbered footnotes in throughout your essay, with a list of references at the end with all the sources listed in the alphabetical order. There are also in-text author-date citations in which you give short parenthetical references (author’s name, the year of publication, pages referred to) and an alphabetized bibliography in the end of paper.

   You need to ask your instructor whether you should use one style or the other. The differences consist of placing references in the text, providing dates in references, and capitalizing titles of the sources.