Citing Electronic Sources in MLA and APA Style
As writing tutors who will be assiting students with citation of sources, it is useful for you to know what information your tutees will need to have to cite their electronic sources. Be sure your tutee knows the following information about the website, database, or other electronic source:• Is there an author mentioned on the web page? (If the student is using an article from a database, there should be an obvious author) • If the information comes from a web page, is there a date of last update? • On what date did the student access the web page or database? • What is the name of the whole website (on the home page)? The URL for a particular article is not the "basic" information a student will need for the citation, especially if it is, in the words of the style guide SF Writer, "long" or "cryptic." • Has the student counted the paragraphs of the online article? This is pertinent for citing -- in-text citation -- following MLA guidelines (see the Cornell University resource on the "Plagiarism Detection" page of this website). Remember, in MLA citation you cannot always use page numbers, as pages printed off of a website might be paginated differently from printer to printer. Paragraph numbers are in this instance much more reliable references. • Did the student use one of the databases to which the University subscribes to find the articles he/she is using and from which he/she is citing? If so, which database? This will be important so that the citation of the electronic source can be complete and accurate. Here is a Works Cited citation for a typical electronic reference, in MLA style. The article came from a research database to which NMT subscribes: Maynard, W. Barksdale. "Thoreau's House at Walden." Art Bulletin 81 (1999): 303-25. Academic Search Premier. EBSCOhost. New Mexico Tech Lib., Socorro. 19 Nov. 2002 The above citation includes the key features that all MLA citations must include for electronic sources: the article author, title, name of journal, issue number, name of database, institution that subscribes to database, and the date of access by student. Here is a Works Cited citation for a typical electronic reference, in APA style. As you will see, the style is more "narrative" than MLA style: Borman, W. C., Hanson, M. A., Oppler, S. H., Pulakos, E. D., & White, L. A. (1993). Role of early supervisory experience in supervisor performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 443-449. Retrieved October 23, 2000, from the PsycARTICLES database. The above citation includes the key features that APA citations must include for electronic sources: the article author(s), year of publication (in parentheses), article title, journal title, issue, page numbers of article, date of retrieval of article by student, and name of database. For information on in-text, or parenthetical, citation for both MLA and APA, please use the links to the resources at the bottom of the page. Here are two "Rules of Thumb" for all citations. First, in-text citations should provide, parenthetically, "enough" information (whether this means date or page number will depend on whether the citation is APA or MLA) for an interested reader to seek out full information on the Works Cited page. Concision is the key for in-text citation. Second, the Works Cited page must provide the full details about the publications cited in the body of the paper so that an interested reader can go find the full source -- in the exact same format as the author used it -- for himself or herself to read. Links to useful online resources for citing electronic texts: "Using MLA Style to Cite and Document Sources" Bedford/St. Martin's Online! APA Style.org Electronic References" APA Online |