Writing & Citation Subject Guide LRC@TCC

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Scope: Find examples and explanations on how to write papers, using APA, MLA or Chicago formatting standards. Find articles and websites that show you how to better evaluate sources, and select topics.  

Browse TCC Library Shelves in these Areas:

Research papers: LB2369  or ZA3065                 APA Formatting: BF76.7

Essays: PE1417-1471                                         Chicago Style Guide:  LB2369.T8

MLA Formatting: LB2369.G53                             

Example Search Topics: Research papers, reports, report writing, essays, MLA, APA, Chicago or Turabian style, style guides, citation.  

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 An important note about APA formatting:  In July 2009, the American Psychological Association published the 6th edition of the APA Publication Manual.  This update to the APA manual has dozens of small changes to in text formatting as well as several significant changes to the Reference page.  A tutorial of the various APA updates is available here.

Updated APA sample paper example: 

  An important note about MLA formatting:  In April 2009, the Modern Language Association will release its 7th edition MLA Handbook for Writers and Research Papers. This update has several changes in the MLA Works Cited page.  Several of these significant changes include:  

1. Instead of underlining titles of books, journals, magazines and websites, students will instead italicize titles.
2. Citations for websites will not require the website addresses/url.  However, if it is unclear where the citation information can be found on the web students are encouraged to provide the web address.
3. Every citation will be required to provide information indicating the format of the citation: print, online, DVD, television.
4. All website citations will require a publisher name, date of publication and (if in .pdf format) page numbers. If the website does not provide a publication date or publisher name, students must indicate that in the citation by using acronyms n.d. (no date) or n.p. (no publisher). 

Updated sample Works Cited page: 

Updated sample paper example: 

Help citing and formatting in citation styles:

Examples in (all three) MLA, APA and Chicago/Turabian Styles:

riting Center of TCC offers self help handouts and free assistance on a voluntary basis to students who are given lab reports, research  

 papers, essays, and other writing assignments in any subject.

Research and Documentation Online by Diana Hacker is recommended by TCC's Writing Center and includes the MLA, APA, CBE, and Chicago styles.

OWL-Purdue University Perhaps the best online resource for APA, MLA and writing form examples, the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University provides extensive citation examples and writing tutorials. 

Citing Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism from Duke University includes APA, Turabian, MLA, Chicago for print and online resources and sections on citing sources within your paper and assembling a list of works cited.

Citation Style for Research Papers  From Long Island University, APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian and AMA examples.

Citation Style for Citing Internet Sources: Shows you how to format Internet sources in MLA, APA and Chicago standards.

Dartmouth Writing Program contains a number of helpful materials, such as some well-written essays that answer the question "What is an academic paper?" and also provide information on researching topics for papers. The site also includes information on such topics as writing about film, music, sociology courses, and examples of citing sources in APA, MLA and Science.

 

Citatation Formatting Websites: These websites help simplify the task of compiling an accurate bibliography in the appropriate style. They format the given data on a source into a reliable citation.   These websites will often incorrectly format citations.  Please use these website with discretion.  Always double-check and compare your formatted citation with appropropriate style guide or handbook.

KnightCite is an online citation generator service in MLA and some APA citations provided by the Hekman Library of Calvin College.

EasyBib.com creates MLA and APA citation and works cited page. Other formats available for a small fee. (printing may not work on public access computers)

Citation Machine assembles gathered information in APA style bibliographic and parenthetical citations (5th Edition APA Publication Manual), and MLA (6th Edition MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers).

NoodleTools Quick Cite Plug in the information about your source and NoodleTools will automatically create an MLA format citation for you.

Docs Cite:  The online citation generator that specifically formats government documents in MLA or APA style.

APA Examples:

The Basics of APA:  A fast tutorial created by the APA. 

APA Electronic Reference Formats American Psychological Association.

Examples: From Ithaca College library.

Even More Examples: From the University of Maryland.

MLA Examples:

Examples (MLA) Citations of popular TCC resources.

MLA Style from the Modern Language Association.

More Examples: From the University of Maryland.

Even more examples:  From Ohio State University.

Chicago or Turabian Style Examples:

Chicago Style Manual:

Citing in Chicago Style From the University of Wisconsin.

Other Styles:

Geological Society of America style guidelines

Legal Citation, Introduction to Basics based on the "Blue Book" 17th. edition recommended by MLA.

Nuts and Bolts of College Writing is a writing-across-the-curriculum primer. The writing-across-the-curriculum perspective challenges students to write in many different fields, not just English courses.

Sources:

Online Instructional Videos:

• Literary Visions (Annenberg)
• News Writing (Annenberg)

Library Research at TCC Basic concepts of information literacy and how to start your research.

Avoiding Plagiarism at TCC provides general guidelines for using sources in essays.

Plagiarism.org

Doing Research in Tidewater Consortium Libraries 

Evaluating Web Pages from UC Berkeley. 

Distinguishing Scholarly Journals from Other Periodicals

Student's Guide to Research with the WWW A tutorial for first year composition and rhetoric students, includes evaluating web information.

Choosing a Topic:

What do I write about? TCC sources of inspiration including Need a Topic?

Idea Generator from Old Dominion University library.

Issues and Causes a collection of many topics suitable for college papers, a YAHOO site. 

Library of Congress Classification Many topics to choose from with call number areas for browsing.