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Okay, but why is that italicized?: Understanding Formal Citation Style

Okay, let’s get this out of the way upfront: citations can be really confusing sometimes! This is mostly because there are several different citation styles, each with their own specific rules for citing information. The kind of citation style you use will depend on the requirements of your academic discipline, your professor’s requirements for an assignment and, sometimes, personal preference. Whichever style you use, there are guidelines for how you format the reference information, including identifying details like names and titles, how and when to use punctuation, and even what the reference page looks like.

Why Do We Cite Sources?

There are some obvious reasons why you, as a student, should cite sources:​

• It is expected in scholarly/academic research​ - this is true for both the classroom and the wider research world.
• It helps you avoid plagiarism - professors tend to penalize you if you don’t appropriately cite your sources, so it’s important not to remove the attribution to something someone else has said/written because that is plagiarism. ​

But there are some other (and, I would argue, better) reasons why you should use sources and why citing them is important.

Research is a bit like entering into a conversation. Imagine every article or book you read is an example of someone speaking out loud or in a chatroom or group text about a particular topic. Thinking of research in this way helps us to understand that sources are written by people with a particular perspective. When you use sources to make an argument in an argument essay or to provide a solution to a problem, you are entering into the conversation and sharing your own perspective on the topic with an audience (usually your professor and peers). When you use sources in your research project you are:​

• Giving credit where credit is due ​
• Proving that the information you're sharing is not just your opinion but backed up with information from another valid source​
• Helping others follow the path of your research​, which is also known as citation chaining

Types of Citation Styles

The simplest way to identify the differences between citation styles is to note the different ways information is referenced in the body of a paper. There are three main categories of citation styles:

1. Parenthetical Citations - Some identifying source information is included in parentheses at the end of sentences or paragraphs in the body of the paper. This information corresponds with the reference/bibliography list at the end of the paper.
2. Numerical Citations - Numbers are used in the body of the text in brackets or as a superscript in the body of the paper which correspond with the reference/bibliography list at the end of the paper.
3. Note Citations - Numbers (superscripts) are used in the body of the paper which correspond with source citation information included at the bottom of the page (a footnote) or at the end of the paper but before the reference/bibliography list (an endnote).

All of the different citation styles (there are more than 10!) fall under at least one of these categories. As a student, you’ll probably encounter one of three more commonly used styles which are American Psychological Association (APA) style, Modern Language Association (MLA) or the Chicago/Turabian style. APA style is typically used in the field of behavioral and social sciences like Psychology and Sociology and in Education. MLA is typically used in the Humanities and Chicago/Turabian style is used in several fields including History and Business. (Scribbr has a list of when to use different styles.)

Note that no matter the category, whatever information is included in the body of the paper corresponds in some way to a list of all of the sources, also known as the reference or bibliography list, which is found at the end of the paper. So, to sum up, the two main aspects of citations are in-text references and the reference list.

Identifiers

There are a variety of official and unofficial guides outlining how to format citations according to style. Purdue Owl is a popular one. However, with certain styles, especially the more commonly used ones, there are sometimes some easy ways to identify different aspects of the citations on sight. For instance:

• In both MLA and APA, titles of longer works (books, magazines, journals etc.) are italicized.
• In MLA, Titles of shorter works (chapters, article titles etc.) are in quotes.
• In both MLA and APA, an easy way to identify a journal article is noting that there is a volume number (and sometimes an issue number) listed.

While you’re not expected to memorize citation style guidelines (unless you really want to), it can be helpful to be able to identify aspects of citation styles. See this UDC help guide for more information about using citations.

Happy citing!