Student's guide to writing college papers, Fourth edition - Kate L. Turabian 2010

Record citation information fully and accurately
Finding useful sources
Writing your paper

Your readers will trust your report only if they trust your evidence, and they won't trust your evidence if you don't cite your sources fully, accurately, and appropriately.

We have to be candid: Citations are the most boring and nitpicky part of reporting research. It's the one task that no one enjoys. But it is nevertheless important. It helps readers understand your work by seeing whose work you have relied upon. It helps readers find your sources (just as you will use the citations in your sources to find more sources you can use). And it helps readers decide whether you are a careful researcher whose work they can trust.

So we urge you to be doggedly systematic in creating your citations; if you get the information down right the first time, you won't have to go back to do it again.

4.2.1 Determine Your Citation Style

Most fields require a specific citation style. You are likely to use one of the three styles that are described in part 2:

✵ Chicago style (also known as Turabian style), from the University of Chicago Press. This style is widely used in the humanities and qualitative social sciences.

✵ MLA style, from the Modern Language Association. This style is widely used in literary studies.

✵ APA style, from the American Psychological Association. This style is widely used in the quantitative social sciences.

If you are uncertain which style to use, consult your instructor. Before compiling your list of sources, read the general introduction to citations in chapter 17.

4.2.2 Record Bibliographic Data

You don't need to memorize the details of citation formats, but you do need to know what information to save. Copy this checklist or use it to create a template for recording the data as you go.

For books, record

___ author(s)

___ title (including subtitle)

___ title of series (if any)

___ edition or volume number (if any)

___ city and publisher

___ year published

___ title and pages for chapter (if relevant)

For articles, record

___ author(s)

___ title (including subtitle)

___ title of journal, magazine, etc.

___ volume and issue number

___ database (if any)

___ date published

___ pages for article

For some online sources, the information you need is less predictable. Record as much of the above as applies, along with anything else that might help readers locate the source. You will also need at least these:

✵ URL

✵ date posted or last modified

✵ date of access

✵ sponsoring organization

You might also record the Library of Congress call number. You won't include it in bibliographic citations, but you'll need it if you have to find the source again.

QUICK TIP

You'll be tempted to take shortcuts, because citations are boring and no one can remember all the rules about periods, commas, parentheses, capitalization, and on and on. But nothing labels you as an untrustworthy researcher faster than citations that are incomplete, inaccurate, or inappropriate. You may have software that automatically formats citations for you (Word includes it); if not, there are websites you can use. You enter the data, and they do the rest of the work. These are useful aids, but they cannot substitute for your own care, and not all of their software works perfectly.