Citation Guides

"The purpose of a research paper is to synthesize previous research and scholarship with your ideas on the subject. Therefore, you should feel free to use other persons' words, facts, and thoughts in your research paper, but the material you borrow must not be presented as if it were your own creation."

Whenever you borrow information, you need to give credit where credit is due by writing a citation for that source of information. This guide was designed to assist you in doing just that!

There are different citation styles, so select the style at left you need for your course. MLA style is used by most courses at MCCC including English. APA style is used by Nursing, Psychology, and often Business classes.

Check with your professor to make sure you use the required style. And whatever style you choose, BE CONSISTENT!

(Quote: MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th Edition. New York: MLA. 55.)

Here are several free citation tools available to help you craft your citations.

• RefMe Includes MLA 8 and APA 6. Requires creating a free account.
• EasyBib is an ad-supported site that includes MLA 8, APA 6 and others.
• Citation Builder: Free site from NCSU that includes MLA 7, APA 6, and Chicago 12.
• Citation Machine: Ad-driven site that includes MLA 7, APA 6, Chicago, Turabian and dozens of other formats
• Microsoft Word 365, available for free download with your student login, has built-in citation creation tools including MLA 7 and APA 6.
• Zotero is a free download application that helps you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources.
• Zoterobib is a free citation builder that doesn't require a download.

This guide is adapted from the following citation guides.

• Citation Guides by Butler University Libraries. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution International license 4.0.
• Citation Styles Playbook by Piedmont Virginia Community College Library 
• Citation Style: MLA 8th Edition by Reynolds Community College Library.