Citing is an important component of every research paper. There are different styles of research paper citing, but we would like to dwell upon the most widely used research paper citing styles: APA and MLA.
APA research paper citing style is a manual for citing sources used in papers on Social Sciences and Psychology.
- If you insert a quotation with one author only, write down the author’s name, year of publishing, and specify the pages the quotation was taken from;
- If a book has 2 or more authors with the same surname, APA research paper citing implies presenting their distinguishing initials;
- If you are citing more than 5 authors, APA research paper citing requires you to name them only the first time you cite their works;
- If a book has 6 and more authors, according to APA research paper citing, you will have to include the name of the first author only;
- If a book has no writer, write down its title.
MLA research paper citing style is more often applicable for many disciplines in the Humanities.
- If you cite long quotations, MLA research paper citing requires using no quotation marks and standard double space after the quotation;
- If a book has a single author, and the quoted words occurred on a certain page, write down the authors’ name and page number;
- If a book has more than 3 authors, MLA research paper citing requires writing down the names of the first 3 authors and “et al.” afterwards;
- If a book has no author, it should be entered under its title.
This is the most general set of rules of research paper citing in APA and MLA styles. Hope, you make use of them.
