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Citing Sources: APA and MLA Format

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Whenever you use ideas that are not your own, you have to cite those ideas to avoid plagiarism. In other words, you have to tell the reader specifically where those ideas originated. Different disciplines use different formats for citations in professional journals or for student papers. APA and MLA are two common formats.

APA is the documentation style recommended by the American Psychological Association and is used in many social science and and related courses (anthropology, education, liguistics, political science, psychology and sociology). MLA is the documentation method recommended by the Modern Language Association and is used in the humanities--philosophy, history, literature, rhetoric and communication.

If you are uncertain about which format to use, ask your instructor, check the professional literature, or ask a librarian.

    What does the APA and MLA format include?

    1. In-text Citations
    2. Works Cited Page

    In-Text Citations: An abbreviated way of documenting your sources within your paper so that the reader sees your source immediately after the quote, paraphrase, or idea.

    Works Cited Page: The last page of your paper that fully documents (e.g. author, title, publication company, etc.) all the sources you cited in your paper.


How to use in-text citations:

If you're using APA, after each sentence that is researched from another source put in parenthesis the author's last name and the year of publication. If you're using MLA, put in parenthesis the author's name and the page number.

Example using APA: "Out of 20,000 people polled, 45% felt the internet was too commercialized" (Foresi 1997). Example using MLA: "Out of 20,000 people polled, 45% felt the internet was too commercialized" (Foresi 23).



How to create a Works Cited page:

Books (APA Style)

Should include Author. (date). Title. Place of publication: Publisher.

Sample: 

	Bernstein, T.M. & Offen, S.B. (1964). The Careful Writer: A modern guide to 
English usage.   New York: Atheneum.

In text: (Bernstein & Offen 1964)

 

Books (MLA Style)

Should include Author. Title. Place of publication: Publisher, date.

Sample: 

Bernstein, T.M. and Sandra Offen. The Careful Writer: A modern guide to 
	English Usage.  New York: Atheneum, 1964.

In text: In text: (Bernstein and Offen 411)

Journals (APA Style) 

	Scotto, P. Censorship, Reading and Interpretation. (1994)
Studies in American Obfuscation 109, 61-70.

In text: (Scotto 1994)

 

Journals (MLA Style) 

Scotto, Peter. "Censorship, Reading and Interpretation." Studies in American 
	Obfuscation 109 (1994): 61-70.

In text: (Scotto 61)

Articles in a Monthly Magazine (APA Style) 

	Wang, P.  (1992, March) Fund Watch.  Money, pp.  49-54.

In text: (Wang 1992)

 

Articles in a Monthly Magazine (MLA Style)

A monthly magazine article citation includes the month, year and the page number(s) on which the article appears. The monthly article includes both the article's title surrounded by quotation marks and the name of the magazine, underlined or italicized.

Wang, Penny.  "Fund Watch."  Money March 1992:  49-54.

In text: (Wang 50)

Articles in a Weekly/Biweekly Magazine (APA Style) 

	Santos, R.  (1998, July 12).  Tax break?  The New Republic, pp.  24-25, 38-40.

In text: (Santos 1998)

 

Articles in a Weekly/Biweekly Magazine (MLA Style) 

Santos, Richard. "Tax break?"  The New Republic.  12 July.  1998: 24-25, 38-40.

In text: (Santos 39)

Articles in a Newspaper (APA Style) 

	Fetter, Jane.  "Critical People Cause Office Fireworks."  (1996, July 4). 

The Providence Journal, p. A1.

In text: (Fetter 1992)

 

Articles in a Newspaper (MLA Style)

A monthly magazine article citation includes the month, year and the page number(s) on which the article appears. The monthly article includes both the article's title surrounded by quotation marks and the name of the magazine, underlined or italicized.

Fetter, Jane.  "Critical People Cause Office Fireworks."  The Providence Journal

	4 July 1996:  A1.

In text: (Fetter A1)


Electronic Sources


APA

Should include Author/editor. (Year). Title. In Source (edition), [type of medium]. Available: URL [access date].

	Daniel, R.T. (1995). The history of Western Music. In Britannica Online: Macropedia 
[Online]. Available:  http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin.html [1995, June 14].

 

MLA

Should include Author/editor (if given). Title. Edition. Place of publication: publisher, date. Source of electronic information (if available). Medium. Available: URL. Access date.

  

Lehman, Bruce A. and Ronald Brown. Intellectual Property and the NII.
	Washington, D.C.:  Information Infrastructure Task Force, 1994.
	Online. U.S. Patent and Trade Office. Available:
	http://www.uspto.gov/nii/ipwg.html.	15 May 1995.

For more information:

Citing On-line Sources (MLA Format)

 


Take the quiz to test your knowledge on citing sources using APA and MLA.



This guide is based on the following sources:

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers Ed. Joseph Gibaldi. 4th ed. NY: 
	Modern Language Association, 1995.

Li, Xia and Crane, Nancy B. Electronic Styles: A handbook for citing electronic 
	information.  Medford, NJ: Information Today, 1996.

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 4th ed. Washington,
	 D.C.: American Psychological Association, 1994.

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[UMass] last updated on 5/3/99