Learn and Generate Bibliographies, Citations, and Works Cited
As you research your academic paper, you may find that using interviews of prominent researchers in your field is a good source of information. You may even decide to interview someone yourself! Depending on the type and manner of publication, interviews may be considered primary sources. Use the container system with the nine core elements when you cite an interview in MLA style. Primary Source...
Teachers frequently assign essays on William Shakespeare in English literature and humanities classes. Thus, it’s important to know how to cite Shakespeare using the MLA citation style. Learning about Shakespeare’s works can be a lot of fun, too. There are many resources available to help you research and write about this topic. Creating In-Text Citations for Works by Shakespeare While...
Using scholarly journal articles in your MLA essay is a good way to find authoritative sources to back up your thesis statement. Depending on their content, journal articles can be primary or secondary sources. When searching for relevant articles, read the abstract first. This will help you determine whether the article will be a useful addition for your paper. Using Journal Article Databases...
In MLA’s latest update, MLA Handbook, Eighth Edition, a container system was developed to help students figure out how to cite sources, like magazine and newspaper articles, correctly. MLA style is used in the humanities, which includes bibliographic entries for art, music, film, movies and video. With rapidly evolving technology, it became difficult for MLA editors to keep up with the changes...
Psychology is a popular elective course. Many students are curious about the way our minds work. We often try to “psychoanalyze” each other by looking at our behavior and coming up with armchair diagnoses of our teachers and fellow students. However, psychology is a broad field with many sub-fields, including clinical, cognitive and developmental psychology. Get top marks on your APA...
Are you interested in copyright law? Or are you writing a college essay or research paper on copyright law? If so, then explore these links to gain a better understanding on the history of copyright in the United States. Each entry tells you whether it is a primary or secondary source. Copyright Websites The United States Copyright Office supplies you with the complete version of the U.S...
As you start your research for your humanities or social studies project, you will need sources for primary documents. These may include original letters, interviews, images, and art. Understanding copyright law terms will help you avoid plagiarism. Even though most items are copyrighted by their owners, there are several places you can find archived items. Many institutions, such as libraries...
Copyright law is extensive and complicated. This article gives a brief overview of copyright law and how it affects students. But, for specific questions, you should ask your teacher. A general rule in writing school essays or developing research projects is to always credit your sources to avoid plagiarism. Fair use guidelines allow basic use of works for students and teachers. Some Basic...
If you are writing an anthropology essay on the Navajo people, you may choose to talk about housing structures. This Chicago/Turabian author-date style sample bibliography provides five resources for you to start researching this subject. References Drover, Christopher E. 1985. “Navajo Settlement and Architecture in Southeastern California.” Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 7...
Are you looking for primary sources for your humanities or social studies school projects? Primary sources are original materials or research. By comparison, secondary sources are those materials that talk about primary sources. For example, an autobiography is a primary source and a biography is a secondary source. Public domain sources be very useful as primary sources. For example, websites...
Learning about different cultures helps students understand how social and family bonds are formed. For example, it helps students empathize with other cultures. Studying anthropology is a broad area, so there are many topics to choose from for your anthropology paper. Generally, this subject is an elective, but you will learn many interesting things if you choose this course. What Is...
One of the first steps to writing a college or high school essay or research paper in Chicago style is creating an outline. An essay outline not only helps you organize your thoughts and sources, but it actually helps with writing the paper itself. But first, you must familiarize yourself with how to format an outline properly. Chicago Style Outline Format An essay outline in Chicago style...
Social studies classes are required in high school and college. In fact, you’ve probably taken several social studies courses throughout your school years. As you graduate into higher level courses, you will be required to prepare research papers about various subjects. Most instructors require either MLA style or Chicago style for your social studies essay. What Does Social Studies Mean...
You may feel overwhelmed looking at your history paper assignment, especially the requirement for Chicago style citations. It’s easy to know where to start if you plan your school project first. Before you even begin writing, review the assignment carefully to ensure you understand it. Although your instructor should give you specific guidelines, you can adapt these steps to complete your...
If you are writing your college paper using the notes-biblio style or if your teacher asks you to include notes in your paper, you need to know the difference between footnotes and endnotes. Typically, notes are included in Chicago notes-biblio style, but you may include them in an MLA or APA citation style school project if your instructor requires them. Where Do You Place the Notes? The...
Learning to research and write MLA college papers is an essential skill as you leave the comfort of high school classes. One frequent complaint by college professors is that high school students come unprepared for college level writing. Gearing high school classes towards standardized tests encourages teachers to teach the five-paragraph essay. Thus, students don’t really learn how to...
You have your research topic ready to go and you have written your basic outline for your paper. Now what? You look at your assignment instructions and realize your instructor requires you to use Chicago notes style. What does that even mean? Understanding the use of Chicago notes-biblio style is important as you begin your college writing journey. What Is Chicago Notes-Biblio? Notes style or...
In today’s digital age, it seems strange that organizing your research sources would be done on index cards. Instead of a mobile app or Google Doc, writing your sources on separate 3″ x 5″ index cards may still be a better way to help organize your citation sources. Although some teachers provide Word document templates that follow the same pattern, note cards make it easier to sort...
In high school, you’ll learn how to write a five-paragraph essay. This skill comes in handy as you learn to develop a thesis statement and organize an essay. Writing a five-paragraph essay is a part of standardized testing, which means it is a useful skill to learn. Organizing a Five-Paragraph Essay When you write a five-paragraph essay, you follow these steps: Introductory paragraph including...
Writing thesis statements for your MLA style school paper can seem intimidating to high school and college students. You may have practice in understanding thesis statements when you prepared five-paragraph essays. Maybe you have even written short five page research papers in your English classes. Writing MLA College Papers However, now you are entering college and you will be writing a lot of...
Teachers often assign research papers to students, especially literature reviews. Literature reviews may be part of a larger research paper or stand alone on their own. Since conducting original research and writing a paper about it takes considerable time, instructors often require students prepare papers such as compare and contrast, critical essays or literature reviews instead. What Is a...
As we have learned in other articles on this site, there is a difference between the way you cite references in your school paper, including using a reference list or a works cited list. It all depends on what citation style your teacher asks you to use while you’re preparing your school project bibliography. Differences of Style Many people use the terms “works cited,”...
In high school, your teacher typically asks you to write a critical essay or a short research paper on a current event or interesting person. Writing in MLA style and creating a works cited page for your references works well for these papers. However, if you take psychology or sociology classes in high school or college, you may be asked to write a paper using APA style. Understanding APA Style...
APA style uses an author-date reference list rather than a bibliography format to cite research sources. A reference list, unlike a bibliography, includes only those sources you cited within your school research paper. Each in-text citation matches a reference list entry. Starting the APA Annotated Bibliography Your instructor may ask you to develop an annotated bibliography in APA style. An...
While developing your APA style school research paper, follow the specific formatting guidelines to finalize your paper. This citation example focuses on writing abstracts for an APA style paper. Learning how to write abstracts is a good skill to have, as it helps you develop the ability to summarize the important points in your paper. A busy student can read abstracts to determine if it’s worth...
You may use MLA style to write about art in high school, but there is a good chance you’ll be using Chicago/Turabian style in college. If you are writing exclusively about an artist or art history, you will probably be asked to use the Chicago notes-biblio style. The notes-biblio style is ideal for writing about music, history and art, because you add notes throughout the text. Chicago author...
Using multimedia sources in your research paper, whether it’s on history, philosophy or any other subject, adds variety to print sources. They also provide readers with an interesting look at the past by hearing or seeing historical figures. For example, this recording of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fireside chat is accessed through a YouTube hosted video. Citing videos like these in...
Using scholarly journal articles in your Chicago author-date research paper is a great way to build up your authoritative sources. Scholarly journals are indexed in databases, such as EBSCO and OCLC. Although many of these academic databases are fee-based, your school, college or public library usually offers free access to students. There are also open-source scholarly journals such as San Jose...
You will see the term “reference work“ frequently while doing research for your school project. But, what exactly are reference works? We usually think of dictionaries and encyclopedias when we hear that term; however, other works such as indices, almanacs and catalogs fall under that category as well. Some reference works are even guides to other reference works. Basically, a reference work is a...
Creating entries in Chicago author-date style is easier than the notes-biblio style, including for websites and other online sources. The notes-biblio style works well for research papers where you need to give your reader a lot of background information. However, the author-date style works better for research papers when you simply want to direct the reader to the source by providing the name...
Using magazine and news articles in your school research paper adds variety to your bibliography. You can easily find these types of articles online, making them great candidates for your notes-biblio style paper. Bringing a full-length book to print takes time. The peer review and publishing process can delay journal articles, too. By contrast, magazines are usually published at least monthly...
After you finish your research for your Chicago notes-biblio style school paper, you will notice you have several research journal articles as sources. Journal articles are great for finding current information. Your college offers free access to several databases, such as ProQuest or JSTOR. If you don’t have access through your school, ask the reference librarian at your local library to help...
Citation styles, like Chicago notes-biblio, allow for some variation in creating entries for books. You may have noticed that some authors create bibliographies differently for their research articles. Even so, it is still important that you follow the basic format, and you definitely need to be consistent in your entries. The main purpose of creating bibliographic entries is to lead your reader...
Even though the notes (either footnotes or endnotes) section throughout your paper gives a lot of detail about your sources, you will still need to create a list of your bibliographical entries. There are some exceptions, though, usually depending on what the publisher or your instructor has in mind. The bibliography is the second major component of what makes up the Chicago notes-biblio...
As you research a topic for your art or history class, you may land upon a topic referring to plays, musical scores and/or art exhibition catalogs. You may need to cite performing arts sources for your Chicago notes-biblio style paper, as a result. For example, if your art history instructor asks you to choose a subject on the Italian Renaissance, you have a wide range of topics to pursue from...
Writing your research paper starts with finding your sources. When you’re writing a paper on history or the arts, it is likely you’ll be using either MLA style or Chicago/Turabian notes-bibliography style. Typically, articles on psychology or other social sciences will not have a lot of art sources and you will use author-date citation styles such as APA or Chicago/Turabian author-date style. MLA...
As you gather your sources for your school research paper, you may consult reference works such as dictionaries, textbooks or encyclopedias. Reference works can be important to your notes-biblio style paper; however, they are secondary rather than primary sources and supplement your primary research, not replace it. Depending on the subject of your paper, you may use more secondary sources than...
As you develop your research paper in the Chicago notes-biblio style, try to use print sources as well as online sources. You may find material originally created in the print form, particularly scholarly journal articles, published in databases such as ProQuest. Generally, online databases require a paid subscription, but your school, college or public library provides access to most sources...
Creating a bibliography guides your readers to all the sources you have consulted or used in your research. As you prepare your research paper, you look for sources that will back up your thesis statement. You may realize as you work through this process, though, that you need to revise your thesis or the way you present your arguments. Developing a preliminary or working bibliography allows you...
As you’re researching your sources for your Chicago/Turabian author-date paper, start to gather the citation elements you need to prepare for your reference list. It can be overwhelming when you’re faced with the daunting research needed for your paper. You can make your life easier by creating a preliminary or working bibliography of all your sources as you go along. Information to Include...
As you gather your sources for your school research paper, you must remember to include every piece of information. While preparing your Chicago author-date style reference list, you want to make sure you give credit where credit is due. This is a cornerstone of research for several reasons. Not only do you have to give credit to the original creator, but you need to direct your reader to your...
Students often use terms such as reference, citation and bibliography interchangeably, but there are differences between these terms. A bibliography (or reference list) is the list of all the sources you used to create your paper. The citation is actually the combination of your in-text source and the full entry listed at the end of your paper. This list, titled a bibliography, works cited or...
As you learn about using MLA for citing your sources, you’ll notice the term “container” being used. You may wonder what that means for you as you create your works cited page. There’s a simple reason why MLA developed the container style. While updating the MLA Handbook, the editors realized they needed to create an easier way to format entries. Since information is found in so many...
MLA style is designed to be flexible, since it’s used in the arts and humanities. The eighth edition of the MLA Handbook provides an easy way to create entries for different sources, such as artworks, videos and printed materials. Simply follow the core elements framework to create the entries in your MLA works cited list. MLA Core Elements There are nine core elements to each entry in an MLA...
Depending on the type of Chicago style you are using, you’ll either create a notes-biblio style bibliography or an author-date style reference list. The author-date style is used a lot in the natural and physical sciences plus social sciences. Citations for books in the author-date style emphasize the author’s name and the date of publication. That’s because they’re considered...
Even though the notes-biblio and author-date styles both come from the Chicago/Turabian style guide, there are critical differences between the two formats. Once you’ve selected the style you want to use, follow the format carefully. Both the in-text citation and its corresponding bibliographic entry are formatted differently. Understanding Chicago Notes-Biblio Style Because the notes-biblio...
You may use abbreviations and acronyms in your MLA works cited list. However, when you are writing your paper, you should always spell out the words in full. Instead of using abbreviations such as etc., i.e. and e.g., write them out completely. For example, instead of using e.g., write out “for example.” When you use acronyms in your paper, write them out in full first. Then, you can put the...
If you used the author-date Chicago/Turabian style while creating your paper instead of the notes-biblio style, you will need to create a reference list rather than a bibliography. The reference list is basically the same as the bibliography; however, you title the page References and you do not need to include all the sources you consulted. You do need to include all the sources that you cited...
As you start to prepare your paper, you hit a crossroads. Should you use the seventh edition or the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook? You may think there’s not much difference. However, the MLA 8th edition introduced a shift in creating entries for your works cited list. In 2016, the Modern Language Association (MLA) decided it was time to revise its guidelines to reflect ever-changing...
You finally finished your research paper and your sources have been created into entries. Now, you can start putting it all together. You’re almost done. Alphabetizing your MLA works cited list is easy as it follows the letter by letter method. Read on to understand how this method works when you’re dealing with multiple authors, no author or other cases. List Items Alphabetically The first step...