Common Citation Styles 1: MLA

A citation style is a set of rules on how to cite your sources in academic writing. Citation style guidelines are often published in an official handbook containing explanations, examples, and instructions.

There are several different ways to cite a source in academic writing. In the past, every subject and specialty has had its own rule for referencing, but today there is a greater tendency among universities and colleges to choose a common method.

Every time you use someone else’s work, either through quoting, summarizing or paraphrasing, you need to credit the original author or creator. This can be done in different ways due to the differences in the types of academic disciplines and majors. In addition, by introducing different citation styles, academic journals and publications can protect unity in the papers they intend to publish. A united referencing style can guarantee the order and beauty of a magazine, especially in the reference section.

Most common citation styles

There are many different citation styles, and the preferred style often depends on your discipline.

• MLA is commonly used in the humanities.
• APA is commonly used in psychology and education.
• Chicago A (notes and bibliography) is commonly used in history.
• Chicago B (author-date) is commonly used in the sciences.

MLA Citation Style

When you prepare research, you need to cite the used references. A citation can include the author’s name, date, and location of the publishing company, journal title, or DOI (Digital Object Identifier). But the way you order this information depends on the referencing style you have chosen.

One of the most common referencing styles is the MLA method developed by the American Language Association. This method is often used in the Humanities and focuses on language and literature, since quoting the author is important due to the credibility it gives to the word. The sources used in this method are generally books.

MLA style is a system for documenting sources in scholarly writing. For over half a century, it has been widely adopted for classroom instruction and used throughout the world by scholars, journal publishers, academic and commercial press.

Major components of MLA style

1. The list of Works Cited: Works Cited, also known as bibliography or reference list, is all the sources and reference list cited in full at the end of a paper.
2. In-text citations: This is summarized sources and reference (author’s last name and page number) inside a text that help the reader identify the full reference in the list of Works Cited.

The list of Works Cited

When deciding how to cite your source by MLA style, study the following list of core elements which should be listed in the following order:

1. Author.
2. Title of source.
3. Title of container,
4. Other contributors,
5. Version,
6. Number,
7. Publisher,
8. Publication date,
9. Location.

Please note that each element should be followed by the corresponding punctuation mark shown above.

Based on the type of source you’re citing, i.e., website citation, a book citation, a journal article citation, and lecture citation you can include some of these nine elements:

• Website citation

• Book citation

• Journal article citation

• Lecture citation

In-text citations

According to Scribbr, “MLA in-text citations are the brief references in the body of your document, which help your reader to find the full reference in the list of Works Cited. You include them when quoting, block quoting, paraphrasing or summarizing the contents of a source. The standard MLA in-text citation includes the author’s last name and a page number.”

• Research by Robert Smith shows that X has a negative effect on Y (15-17).
• According to Smith,“66% of voters are currently against Brexit” (13).
• “66% of voters are currently against Brexit” (Smith 13).