When writing a paper, you may need to include information from scholarly sources. These sources can be articles in a journal or magazine, books, or other types of documents. These can be used to support your arguments or counterarguments, and it’s important to cite them correctly in your writing.
How to Cite an Article in the Writing
The most common citation systems are Modern Language Association (MLA) and the American Psychological Association (APA). Both have the same basic rules for citing an article, but their format can vary slightly. In addition, if the source is online, you may need to cite a DOI number.
APA Guide for Citing an Article in the Writing
In APA style, you start by listing the author’s name and the year of publication. You also need to include the title of the article and the journal name, as well as the volume number and issue number if applicable. The journal title should be in italics, but you don’t need to use quotation marks for this. The citation ends with page numbers, which are always listed after the article title and the volume and issue numbers, unless the journal uses pagination by issue.
Depending on the source, you may have to include the title of the journal in italics, but you don’t have to. Italics distinguish the title of the journal from the title of the article, and it helps readers easily identify your source.
MLA Guidelines for Citing an Article in the Writing
The MLA citation format has a few differences from APA and Chicago styles. First, MLA does not require page numbers; however, it does recommend that you include them in case the article has more than one page. If there is more than one edition of a newspaper published for that date, you can use a plus sign to indicate that you have a later version.
If you have more than one text by the same author, you should cite each work separately. This can be done by inverting the author’s name, or you can group all of them together with a comma and type the word “and.”
When you have more than one direct quote from a source, position each in a separate block of lines without quotation marks and use double-spacing for all the text. Then, indent 0.5in/1.2cm from the left margin and end the section with proper punctuation.
Long Direct Quotes
When a single quote exceeds 40 words, you will need to place it in a block of lines without quotation marks, similar to creating a new paragraph. Indent the entire quoted section one half inch from the left margin, and then type the quote within these new margins using double-spacing.
For each long quote, include a parenthetical citation after the final punctuation mark. In the example below, you would use the following citation: Greave, 2015, as cited in Schein, 2017.
