If you are using someone else's words or ideas to write your paper or assignment, you MUST tell the reader where you found this information. The references you use are called citations and are normally put into a bibliography or works cited page in your paper. Citing your references allows the reader to determine where you found your information and to be able to locate the article or book in its original format.

There are several different types of citation styles, for example: MLA (Modern Language Association), APA (American Psychological Association), Chicago Style, Turabian and CSE (Council of Science Editors). Your professor will normally tell you which style to use -- if not remember to ask.

The format or way the citation is arranged or punctuated varies with each style. In addition, the type of material (book, ebook, journal, magazine, ejournal, web page, government publication, etc.) will dictate what information you will need to include in your citation. Some of the types of information you will might need are:

• Author/Editor
• Title
• Title of journal
• Publisher and place of publication (when available)
• Publication date or date last modified
• URL address (for electronic)
• Database used (for electronic)

Sample Citations from MLA:

Books

Mueckenheim, Jacqueline K. Business Plans Handbook : A Compilation of Actual Business Plans Developed by Small Businesses Throughout North America. Detroit, MI: Gale, 2002.

O'Neill, Euguene. "All God's Chillun Got Wings." An Anthology of Interracial Lliterature: Black-white Contacts in the Old World and the New. New York: New York University Press, 2004. 504-29.

Journals

Tolbert, D. L., B. Conoyer, and M. Ariel. "Quantitative Analysis of Granule Cell Axons and Climbing Fiber Afferents in the Turtle Cerebellar Cortex." Anatomy and Embryology 209.1 (2004): 49-58.

Electronic Journal

Nair, Swapna. "Magnetic field-induced cluster formation and variation of magneto-optical signals in zinc-substituted ferrofluids." Journal of Magnetism & Magnetic Materials 305.1 (2006): 28-34. Academic Search Complete. Otterbein College, Westerville, OH. 11 September 2006. <http://search.ebscohost.com>.

Website

Center for History and New Media/American Social History Project. The September 11 Digital Archive: Saving the Histories of September 11, 2001. 2005. 9 September 2006. <http://www.911digitalarchive.org/>.