The two most common citation styles used in the English department are Modern Language Association (MLA) and Chicago Style. Always check with your instructor or syllabus to determine which is preferred for your course.
Citations are important because they:
Although MLA and Chicago Style are different styles that follow different rules, both will require brief in-text citations as well as a page (or pages) at the end of your paper that give more detail on your sources. Knowing how to write according to your instructor's preferred style will influence your grade as well as your credibility as a scholar!
Citation generators can provide a useful start to citations, but they do not always produce accurate citations.
If you use a citation generator, even if it is from a database, it may not be correct. It's your responsibility to double-check the accuracy of the generated citation!
The newest MLA Handbook (8th edition) provides a universal guideline for citing sources that allows for more flexibility. Earlier editions had guidelines based on source type, but since new types of sources are created quickly, this new guideline allows citations to adapt more easily.
The general order and format of the citation follows this guideline:
Here's a sample Works Cited entry for an article found online:
Goldman, Anne. "Questions of Transport: Reading Primo Levi Reading Dante." The
Georgia Review, vol.64, no. 1, 2010, pp.69-88. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/41403188.
Further information (and more examples) can be found
The most recent Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition) includes updated information for technological and social changes. The Manual can be found online or in print. The Chicago style follows either a "notes and bibliography" model or an "author-date" model. Chicago style's notes and bibliography model is generally used by scholars in literature, history, and the arts.
The general order and format of the citation of an article follows this guideline:
Here's a sample Bibliography entry for an article found online:
Goldman, Anne. "Questions of Transport: Reading Primo Levi Reading Dante." The
Georgia Review 64, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 69-88.
www.jstor.org/stable/41403188.
Further information (and more examples) can be found