Why are there so many different citation styles?
(APA) American Psychological Association is most commonly used in Nursing, Business, Psychology and other disciplines that value recent rather than older information.
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Nursing, Business, Psychology and other disciplines emphasize the date of publication because current information may be more relevant.
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APA citation style forefronts the date in the in-text citation (author, year, page number).
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the list of sources at the end of the paper is called References.
(MLA) Modern Language Association is most commonly used in English writing and literature courses.
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English Literature is not as concerned with dates. An article about Shakespeare written years ago may be as relevant as one written yesterday.
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MLA citation style forefronts the author by forgoing the date in the in-text citation (author, page number).
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the list of sources at the end of the essay is called Works Cited.
(CMS) Chicago Manual of Style is most commonly used in History
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History requires complete citation information about each source in foot or end notes at the bottom of the each page (author, title, place of publication, publisher, date and page number).
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the list of sources at the end of the paper is called a Bibliography.
How do I know how to use each style correctly?
Consult Camosun citation guides to learn how to cite your sources.
If you keep the parts of each citation in mind, you will become familiar with and better understand each style.
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Author(s)
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Title of work
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Publishing information
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Date
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Page number(s)
Style guides show you how to cite your scholarly sources. They also show you how and when to use
- numbers
- symbols
- titles
- italics
- quotation marks
- and much more
