A citation depicts the sources quoted in an essay, report, a book, anthology, or a thesis to substantiate a point or corroborate the evidence given. In a sense citations are the rock-solid suggestions to the breadth of your research and knowledge on a subject. It also simultaneously is a way of paying homage to the original source or author of an idea or concept.
Since citations are a crucial part of any in-depth analysis, it should be mentioned in a particular format. Often researchers are confounded about these varying citation styles – so, when that happens it is always good to ask the supervisor which style he would prefer.
Following a citation style is not an easy task – since each school of style has a different approach to grammar, numbers, spacing, fonts and overall presentation. Also since citing other authors or works is a way of avoiding plagiarism and other copyright issues, it’s critically important to include citations.
Largely there are five broad categories of formats that editors, writers and publishers follow. These are the APA, CSE, Chicago, MLA and Turabian.
While MLA (Modern Language Association) stresses on double spacing when a source is being mentioned, the Chicago style highlights two further sub styles under its broad category. Further MLA also stresses that the in-text citation should be mentioned along with the works-cited page later.
With so many intricate rules to formatting a citation, it is best to understand how each style will help justify the specific work it is being included in. Thus, to be on the safe side, it is important to follow some established norms while choosing a particular format. For example the APA style is usually used in works of psychology and social sciences – while MLA helps in literature, arts, and humanities and in some other disciplines. Chicago and Turabian are both preferred in history and some other disciplines.
Since most citation styles have been elaborated on in PDF formats online – any student who wishes to refer to them can directly refer to these style guides online.
With publishers, research institutions and universities becoming more and more aware of plagiarism, and scientific writing, the value of a citation increases manifolds. Thus to do absolute justice to one’s work and honour publishing protocol– a proper and detailed mention of the works, authors (along with the page numbers and year published) is a crucial tool to avoid facing any punishment.