Citations are understandably intimidating, especially with how strictly you must follow the existing rules and guides. Feeling overwhelmed is normal since it is a skill that is developed with practice. While this blog doesn’t go into detail about each citation style, the aim is to be, in a way, the guide to the citation guides. Keep reading as I take you through proper bibliographical information, which is essential to all university students.

What are Citations, References and Bibliographies?

Citations, references and bibliographies—what’s the difference? If you asked me that question during my first year of university, I would not have been able to answer that. High schoolers may be the most familiar with a bibliography; it is a list of all the sources of any medium that you used while researching for your writing. Reference lists, on the other hand, acknowledge a source in the completion of a specific part of an assignment. Bibliographies and reference lists are both lists of used sources found at the end of an assignment.

The key difference between a bibliography and a reference list is that bibliographies include sources you’ve read and haven’t referred to in the assignment. For example, reading something for the background knowledge which you did not include in the writing. References cite all the sources that you actually referred to in the writing, and are also known as “works cited”.

The differences are important to know so that you can provide what the professor asks of you; certain courses might call for a bibliography or a reference list alone, or perhaps both.

Citations are used to refer to all the ways to ensure you properly credit your sources, which include your bibliography and references. There are different styles that are accepted and required. This will, again, depend from course to course.

Citations are incredibly important in academic writing. You'll be gathering information from reliable sources, properly citing prior ideas, and organizing your findings so that you can form your own ideas for an assignment. You devalue the work of other authors as well as your own by failing to properly credit their contributions, which is a violation of academic conduct.

Citation Styles

A citation style/format is a set of rules that must be followed when formatting your citation information. This includes the order and punctuation. The most common citation styles are APA (American Psychological Association), MLA (Modern Language Association), and Chicago/Turabian; however, there are also styles specific to subjects, for instance, ACS (American Chemical Society) for chemistry. Each citation style has its own guides that you must follow. Sometimes, I find myself juggling multiple citation styles in a single semester! It's okay to not remember your guides as long as you are able to find them when needed. The guides you use will depend on your field of study. History for instance is one of the subjects that uses Chicago, while MLA is used in many language and literature subjects. 

Writing your citations is a skill that isn’t acknowledged as much as it should be for its importance. Imagine being served your meal at a restaurant without a plate. That meal is your assignment without citations; you often don’t focus on it until it's not there!

How Do You Use a Citation Guide?

 First, you need to find out which guide you need to follow in your subject. You can often find it on your school website. For example, Simon Fraser University has a webpage to guide students: https://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/cite-write/citation-style-guides). Purdue OWL is also a great resource to find citation guides. 

The guides will show you how to cite different materials; for example, citing journal articles is different from citing books. While it's helpful to familiarize yourself with the style of your major/subject area, your professor will disclose what citation style is required for the specific course, especially if you are not familiar with the subject. You may also use online citation generators such as Zotero or its Chrome extension, but information may be missing or in the wrong place. Compare your citation information with online examples. Every punctuation counts, and a comma or italics out of place can change the meaning of the citation information.

You should also be aware that there are several variations of each guide as the styles change over time. For example, APA and MLA style guides are still working towards being inclusive of Indigenous knowledge and their keepers. While there is more leniency in what variation of a guide you use, you must stay consistent for the whole assignment. Be aware that professors have their preferences, so it is always a good idea to ask if they have not already informed you and your class!

Footnotes, Endnotes, and In-Text Citations

APA and MLA style citations do not use footnotes or endnotes. For the most part, you won’t have to use them since only Chicago style and occasionally MLA do. However, it's still useful to know how to read them. Footnotes are references that appear at the bottom of the page. On the other hand, endnotes are listed at the end of the paper right before your reference list and/or bibliography. For ease of reading, footnotes are almost always preferred over endnotes.

The footnote reference and its number at the bottom of the page will correspond to the section of the body paragraphs containing the number. For example:

To insert them yourselves, you can use most versions of Microsoft Word, where footnotes and endnotes can be found in the “References” tab. You can also use Google Docs and find the feature for footnotes in the “Insert” tab.

APA style and MLA style use in-text citations rather than footnotes/endnotes. An in-text citation (aka parenthetical) is a very brief reference that you include within the body of your essay to quickly identify the original source of an idea or quotation. It consists of some combination of the author's last name, date, and page number. For example: “Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent” (McCarthy, 215). 

Citations help you become part of a wider scholarly community, even on the small scale of a first/second-year course. You participate in your area of study by using the appropriate citation style with consistency and accuracy!