Guides: English Literatures: Citations

Style Manuals

The primary reasons for citing sources in a research paper are to give credit to the authors whose work you have drawn upon and to allow readers to track down your sources, should they wish to do so.

MLA Handbook
Call Number: LB2369 .M52 2021
Location: Lauinger Reference Desk
MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing
Call Number: PN147 .G444 2008
Locations: Lauinger Reference Desk
Chicago Manual of Style
Call Number: Z253 .U69 2017
Location: Lauinger Reference

Chicago Manual of Style Online This link opens in a new window
Electronic version of one of the most used style guides for writing in American English. Provides rules and suggestions for bibliographies and other forms of documentation such as parenthetical references, footnotes, and endnotes. Includes instructions on how to cite electronic and online sources. Also contains a chapter on grammar and usage (punctuation, spelling, etc.).

Citation Guides

MLA Guide
Covers the basics of citing sources using the 8th edition of the MLA Handbook.
MLA Style Center
Guidelines and FAQs on using MLA style.
Turabian Notes / Bibliography (Humanities Style)
Covers the basics of citing sources using Turabian / Chicago style notes and bibliography.
Purdue's OWL
Purdue's OWL (Online Writing Lab) provides guides to MLA, APA, and Chicago styles, as well as advice on research, writing and citation.
ZoteroBib
ZoteroBib is a tool from the makers of the Zotero citation manager--it's perfect for short bibliographies in lots of different citation formats

Citation Managers

The following tools can be used to organize your research, format citations, and create bibliographies.

RefWorks This link opens in a new window
RefWorks is an online research management, writing, and collaboration tool designed to help researchers gather, manage, store, and share information and generate citations and bibliographies.

Zotero
Zotero is a free tool designed to help you gather, manage and share information about books, articles, web pages and other digital objects that you are using in your research, and to generate citations and bibliographies. Zotero is a Mozilla browser plugin. You can choose to gather your data on your hard drive (if you are working mainly from one computer), or on a flash drive or a network (if you frequently access your data at multiple workstations).

Writing Assistance

The Georgetown University Writing Center is a free writing resource open to all Georgetown students. Graduate and undergraduate students trained in teaching writing are available to assist you at any stage of your writing process. The Writing Center offers assistance in topic development, general organization, guidance on paper revisions, and specific or recurring structural problems with writing.