Simple In-Text Citations

Citing a source could be easy as just adding a couple of parentheses, an author's name, and a page number. When paraphrasing a work by Liz Collinson, my citation would come after the passage I wrote.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit donec a diam lectus. Sed sit amet ipsum mauris (Collinson 11).

Another option is to name the author in your prose, allowing you to omit it from the parenthetical citation.

According to Liz Collinson, lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit donec a diam lectus. Sed sit amet ipsum mauris (11).

If you want to quote, the process is largely unchanged. However, to keep the prose in your own voice, you should never start a sentence with a quote.

When describing lorem ipsum, Liz Collinson notes, "Donec et mollis dolor" (11).

Note that in each example above, the trailing period always comes after the citation. Always.

Simple Reference List

All those citations are meaningless because I have no idea who Liz Collinson is or what she wrote. I need help finding the source you referenced. That's where a reference list comes in.

For a printed work, such as a book, you just need to include:

For example:

It gets more complicated for other types of works, such as book chapters, journal articles, websites, and unpublished manuscripts. For those types of work, consult one of the following style guides:

I don't care which one you use, but use it consistently and correctly.

Footnotes/Endnotes

Please feel free to use footnotes or endnotes, if you prefer, instead of the parenthetical citations I described above. It doesn't matter whether you use footnotes or endnotes, but please use one or the other but not both. Footnotes appear at the bottom of each page, and endnotes appear at the end of the document.

No matter whether you use footnotes or endnotes, the in-text reference should be denoted by a superscript, Arabic numeral.

Maecenas congue ligula ac quam viverra nec consectetur ante hendrerit. Donec et mollis dolor.1

For more information on using footnotes or endnotes, consult The Chicago Manual of Style. It is the standard for footnote and endnote citations.