In any research assignment, it is important to document information that comes from outside sources. Doing so gives authors credit for their work and students clearly identified support for their essays.
Style guides provide consistent standards for documenting outside sources, including how to prepare a bibliography, cite information within the text, and format pages. There are a wide variety of style guides in use, each suited to the needs of a particular field. The most commonly used styles for Sinclair courses are MLA and APA.
Writing center tutors can help students learn and apply citation styles. We also provide citation resources both in the center and online.
Online citation resources:
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The Purdue Online Writing Lab is a great one-stop reference for documenting sources. Here students can find answers to most citation questions. The sample essays are especially helpful for problems with page formatting.
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The Cabrillo College Library provides a short and sweet MLA guide to citing common sources.
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Other citation styles:
