TracelyCitation guide
Patterns and examples for the three formats you'll actually be assigned.
MLA 9
English and humanitiesAuthor-page style. The works cited entry leads with the author, and the in-text citation gives a page number with no comma.
APA 7
Psychology and social sciencesAuthor-date style. The year follows the author's name, titles of books and articles take sentence case, and the in-text citation gives the author, year and page.
Chicago 17
History and the artsNotes and bibliography. A numbered footnote gives the source where you use it, and the bibliography entry leads with the author's last name. If your class uses Chicago's author-date system instead, follow that.
Rules that save the most points
Cite the idea, not just the quote.
A paraphrase needs a citation exactly as much as a direct quotation does. Most integrity cases start here.
Two authors, then three.
MLA and Chicago name both authors; APA uses an ampersand for two and “et al.” from three onward.
No page number? Say what you have.
For a web source, MLA drops the page, APA uses a paragraph number or heading, and Chicago points to the section.
One format per document.
Mixing MLA punctuation into an APA reference list is the most common deduction on a bibliography.
Check the source is real before you cite it.
Confirm the author, journal and year against the actual record. A citation that looks right and points to nothing is worse than none.
Tracely does this for you
Insert a source and Tracely pulls the author, date, publisher and URL from the record it found, formats the reference in MLA, APA or Chicago, and puts the in-text citation at your cursor.
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