Once you have located your outside sources to provide context, remember that you have to use the sources responsibly, which means you'll need to cite your sources correctly.
Start by collecting this information:
A Writer's Reference by Once you have the above information collected, you'll want to construct the citation. For the general format of APA and MLA citations for the more commonly cited materials, please see below:
Author, A. A. (Year). Title of Entry. In Editor First Initial. Editor Last Name (ed.), Title of encyclopedia (edition if not the first, page numbers). Publisher. DOI/URL
Citing Wikipedia in APA is deliberately easy. See the APA Style Blog for more information. Here is an example:
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy
Example:
Traditional Print books:
Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Publisher Name.
Examples:
Electronic books:
Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of book [eBook edition]. Publisher. URL
*It is only necessary to denote format when the electronic version differs from the traditional print version.*
Audiobooks:
Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of book (N. Narrator, Narr.) [Audiobook]. Publisher.
*It is only necessary to denote format when the audiobook version differs from the traditional print version in some way (is abridged or has additional content).*
Traditional print news article:
Author, A. A. (Year, Month Date). Title of article. Title of Newspaper, pages.
Online news article (from a publisher with a physical newspaper):
Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of article. Title of Publication. URL
Online news article (from a publisher without a physical newspaper):
Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of article. Name of publishing website. URL
Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of page. Site name. URL
Group name. (Year, Month Date). Title of page. Site name. URL
Title of page. (Year, Month Date). Site name. Retrieved Month Date, Year, from URL
Whenever you use a resource and directly quote the source or paraphrase some of their ideas in your own paper, you need to cite the source in-line. To do this for APA, you'll need the author's last name, year of publication, and page number. Here are a couple of examples:
Don't know the date? Just use n.d. instead. If you're using a web source and don't have page numbers, you'll have to count the paragraph number instead and notate it using para.
Examples:
Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Entry." Title of Encyclopedia or Dictionary, edited by Editor's First Name Last Name, Edition if given and not first edition, vol. Volume Number, Publisher Name, Year of Publication, pp. First Page - Last Page. Database Name, URL.
When you don't have the name of an author, like with Wikipedia, you will begin your citation with the "Title of Entry":
Author, First. "Title of Article." Title of Periodical, vol., no., Year, pages. DOI or URL
Example:
Traditional Print books:
Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. City of Publication, Publisher, Publication Date.
Examples:
Electronic books:
Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of book [eBook edition]. Publisher. URL
*It is only necessary to denote format when the electronic version differs from the traditional print version.*
Audiobooks:
Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of book (N. Narrator, Narr.) [Audiobook]. Publisher.
*It is only necessary to denote format when the audiobook version differs from the traditional print version in some way (is abridged or has additional content).*
Traditional print news article:
Author, First. "Title of Article." Title of Newspaper, Day Month Year, pages.
Online news article (from a publisher with a physical newspaper):
Lastname, First. "Title of Article." Title of Newspaper, Day Month Year, URL
Online news article (from a publisher without a physical newspaper):
Lastname, First. "Title of Article." Name of publishing website, Month Day Year, URL
Lastname, First. "Title of Page." Site Name, URL. Accessed Day Month Year.
Group name. "Title of page." Site name, URL. Accessed Day Month Year.
"Title of page." Site name, URL. Accessed Day Month Year.
Similar to APA style, you'll need to include in-line citations when you quote or paraphrase something in MLA citation style. For MLA, you will only need author's last name and page number. Here are some examples:
If your source does not use page numbers (for example, a web source), you do not need to count paragraphs or guess page number. Instead, just use the author's last name:
