When starting to write a research essay, you should consider in what format you will put both your writing and the reference page. You may be assigned a variety of reference styles, such as the Modern Language Association (MLA), the American Psychiatric Association (APA), and the Style Manual of Chicago, each of which has its own rules. Unless necessary, you won't have to learn all three styles. However, if you belong to a field that involves writing, you must master at least one of them. In this article, you will find a summary of each of these styles so that you can start your essay off right.
Steps
Method 1 of 3: Employ the MLA style
Step 1. Make references as you write
In the style of the MLA, short parenthetical references are included in the text itself and then collated in alphabetical order on a page titled "Works Cited" at the end of the document. As you write your essay, it is important to mention the sources of certain information. In this way, you can avoid plagiarism (that is, attributing to yourself the knowledge of another person).
- Immediately after each sentence in which there is information that is not your original, you must include a reference. Information of this type includes paraphrasing, data, statistics, quotes, and examples.
- To incorporate a reference to the text using the MLA style, you only need to include the author's last name (or the title in case there is no author) and then the page number without a comma to separate them. For example, in the reference "(Richards 456)", "Richards" is the author's last name and "456" is the page number.
- If the source has an author (or a title if it does not have an author) but no page number, you can simply put the author's last name or title.
Step 2. Gather information
When researching in the style of the MLA, you should collect specific information to include in each reference (for example, author's name, publisher, publication date, and page numbers).
- To better keep track of MLA-style references as you do your research, the best way is to copy and paste the information into a word processor document or write it down in a notebook as you get it.
- Things to include for each source include the author, publication date, publisher, page number, issue and volume number, website, access date, and anything else listed in the copyright page or that could tell you how to find the source again.
Step 3. Organize your sources
After writing the essay, when you are preparing to submit or publish it, you should create a page titled "Works Cited" in which the references are arranged alphabetically and which should be the last page of the document.
- This is an example of the format of a standard reference to a book according to the MLA style: Author's last name, First name. Title of the book. City of publication: Name of the publisher, year of publication. Middle of the source.
- This is an example of a reference to a website in the style of the MLA. If an author does not appear on the website, the reference must begin with the name of the page: Surname, First name. "Page title". Website title. Web publisher. Publication date. Middle of the source. Date of access.
- This is an example of a reference to an academic source according to the MLA style: Last Name, First Name. "Article title". Magazine title. Volume. Edition (Year): page numbers. Middle of the source.
- The title of the main work (be it the book, magazine, scholarly journal, website, etc.) should be italicized or underlined if you are going to write the references by hand.
- You must place the titles of the chapters or articles in quotation marks.
Step 4. Sort the list alphabetically
The references must be placed in alphabetical order according to the authors' last names.
- In case the source does not have an author, as is often the case with websites, the reference entry should start directly with the title of the work, omitting the name of the author.
- Arrange the entries in alphabetical order based on their first letter, regardless of whether or not the source includes the author's name.
Step 5. Format the works cited page
The document must be double-spaced and the reference list must be titled "Works Cited."
- Format the text by placing it in Times New Roman font at 12 point size and placing the title "Works Cited" centered at the top of a new page.
- Each entry must have French indentation. This means that all lines except the first must have an indentation of 1.27 cm (0.5 inches).
- After each part of the reference, you must place a period. You should also always put one at the end of the reference.
Method 2 of 3: Employ the APA Style
Step 1. Make references as you write
In APA style, parenthetical references are included in the essay text itself and then collated in alphabetical order on a page titled "References" at the end of the document. As you write your essay, it is important to refer to the sources of the information. In this way, you can avoid plagiarism, which is a form of cheating.
- After each sentence in which there is information that you did not know before investigating, you should put a reference in parentheses.
- To incorporate a reference to the text using the APA style, you only have to include the author's last name (or the title in case there is no author) and then the year of publication without a comma between them. For example, in the reference "(Richards 2005)", "Richards" is the author's last name and "2005" is the year.
- If the source has an author (or a title if it does not have an author) but no page number, you can simply put the author's last name or title. This usually happens when referring to websites.
- In APA style, it is very important to format the document. Essays in this style are divided into 4 sections and references (in the case of research essays that adhere to the APA style) are placed in the "References" section, which is the last section of a document in this style.
Step 2. Gather information
As you do your research, write down each piece of copyright information for anything you do research. You should record this information for all the sources you consult and make a note so that you can remember it. You'd be surprised how many ideas you start paraphrasing without being able to remember where you got them from.
To write the references on the page of the same name in the APA style, you must include the name (s) of the authors, the date of publication, the website address, the date of access to it, the title of the work, etc
Step 3. Organize this list
References in the list must be in alphabetical order and French indentation, just like for the MLA style.
- This is an example of the format for a reference to an article in an academic journal in the APA style: Author's last name, Initial of his first name. (Year of publication). Title of the article or chapter. Magazine or book title, Issue number, page number range.
- This is the format for a reference to a book in the APA style: Last Name, First Name. (Year). Book title: Capital also for the subtitle. Place: Editorial.
- This is an example of the format for referring to a website in the APA style: Author, A. A. First Name & Author, B. B. (Publication date). Article title. In Title of the web page or of the document or book to which it belongs (number of the chapter or section). Retrieved from URL.
Step 4. Format the page
The document must be double-spaced and the reference page must be titled "References" at the top center of the page.
- Capitalize the last name of the author and the initial of his first name, placing a period afterwards.
- In the title of a journal article, only the first word should be capitalized (unless the title includes a proper noun). This is known as "sentence-like" capitalization. You must write the titles of the books with capital letters as they have been published.
- Capitalize the city of publication, correctly abbreviating the states within a country (as appropriate). You must also capitalize the name of the publisher and place a period at the end of the reference.
- You should italicize (or underline if you are writing by hand) the titles of major works, such as a book, academic journal, website, or magazine. In the case of the edition number, it is also italicized immediately after the title. In entries in the APA style, there should be no indicative punctuation in the titles of shorter works, such as chapters or articles.
- You must put a period at the end of each reference.
Method 3 of 3: Employ the Chicago Manual of Style
Step 1. Make references as you write
The Chicago Manual of Style uses two different styles of reference: "Notes and Bibliography" and "Author and Date." The format of the reference that you will place within the text will depend on the style that you are going to use.
- If you are going to use the "Notes and bibliography" style, after each in-text citation, you place a superscript and a corresponding footnote at the bottom of the page. Then, you collect all the footnotes on a footnote page at the end of the document, on the bibliography page.
- If you are going to use the "Author and date" style, the references within the text are placed in parentheses and include the author's last name and the year of publication without any punctuation between the two. Then, on the references page, you put the full version of all the references in parentheses that you have incorporated into the text and order them alphabetically. For example, in the reference "(Simon 2011)", "Simon" is the author's last name and "2011" is the year.
- Immediately after each sentence in which there is information that is not your original, you must include a reference. Information of this type includes paraphrasing, data, statistics, quotes, and examples.
Step 2. Gather information
When researching for your essay, you should take note of all the bibliographic information you find. This refers to the title, author, publication, year, volume and edition number, place of publication, website, and even the date the material was accessed (in case you found it online).
- If the source is a book, be sure to record any relevant information that you can find on the copyright page. This includes the name of the publisher and the city and year of publication.
- Information of this type in other sources can be found near the title of the work. On websites, the publication date is usually at the bottom.
Step 3. Use the style "Notes and bibliography" if you are instructed to do so
Scholars in the humanities area (that is, literature, history, and the arts) prefer this method (abbreviated as NB), as it allows a wide range of sources to be recorded in detail, which is not possible following the "Author" style. and date ".
- The reference page should have the title "Bibliography", which should be at the top of the page and centered. Then, leave two blank spaces before the first entry and leave a space between each entry.
- The "Notes and Bibliography" style uses footnotes and endnotes. On the bibliography page, you should list all the sources in alphabetical order and with French indentation.
- This is an example of the format for a book: Last Name, First Name. Title of the book. City: Publisher, year.
- This is an example of the format for a chapter in a printed academic journal: Author's last name, First name. "Title of the chapter or article". Title of the book or magazine. Issue Number (Year): page number range. (If the article is from an academic journal published online, you must put "Date of access. URL address" at the end of the entry).
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This is an example of the format for a website: Website name. "Page title". Last modification date. Date of access. Url address.
- If the author is not known, you should start the entry with the title of the document (that is, the web page, the chapter, the article, etc.)
- If there is more than one author, the last name is placed first and then the name of the first author that appears so that the entry is ordered alphabetically according to the last name of this author. Then the names of the following authors are named first: Alcott, Louisa May; Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell.
- All references must end with a period.
Step 4. Use the "Author and date" style if requested
This is the preferred style in science (ie, physical, natural, and social sciences), as it is a more concise style for documentation.
- For the "Author and Date" style, the references page should be titled "References" at the top center of the page. Then, leave two blank spaces before the first entry and one space between each entry.
- The bibliography that follows the style "Author and date" must be in alphabetical order according to the author's last name (or according to the title if there is no author) and have French indentation.
- This is an example of the format for a book: Last Name, First Name. Year. Title of the book. Publication city: Editorial.
- This is an example of the format for a chapter in a printed academic journal: Author's last name, First name. Year. "Title of the chapter or article". Title of the book or magazine. Edition number: page numbers. (If the article is from an academic journal published online, you must put "Date of access. URL address" at the end of the entry).
- This is an example of the format for a website: Website name. Year. "Page title". Last modification date. Date of access. Url address.
Advice
- If you are assigned to write an essay or other written document following any of these styles, you should buy the corresponding style manual, since there you will find almost all the possibilities of references to sources, as well as the format that the fonts should have. sheets, as well as grammar and punctuation specific to that style.
- You don't need to write each bibliography or reference entry yourself. You can also download referral management software, such as Endnote (although this will have to be purchased) or Zotero (free) or use websites such as https://www.bibme.org/ and https://www.easybib.com/. There, before starting to generate the references, you can choose the style manual you want and then copy the reference and paste it into your bibliography or references page.