ENGL 197: Controversies in Ethnic Literature (Rana, Winter 2025): MLA and Chicago Citation Styles

UC Library Search and many article databases will format citations for you in the cite, save, or email  options but be careful -- they are not always accurate.

Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (Purdue OWL) is an excellent, reputable guide to citation styles. 

A citation is the basic information that you need to find an article, book, or other resource.

Citations are a form of shorthand -- they look complicated because they cram a lot of information into just a few lines, but once you learn how to read them they begin to make sense.

An article citation will always tell you:

• The author's name
• The title of the article
• The name of the magazine or journal in which it appears
• The volume number of the magazine or journal (and sometimes the issue number)
• The page numbers on which the article is located
• The date when the article was published

A book citation will tell you:

• The author's name
• The title of the book
• The publication date
• The city in which the book was published
• The book's publisher