When writing an academic paper, providing the information to allow your readers to access your sources is a critical element of making your work credible. Citation styles guide you in presenting sources in a clear, consistent way.
Different academic disciplines use different citation styles. Your professor will often specify the citation style to use.
APA (American Psychological Association) style is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences including business, education, nursing, and psychology, among other disciplines.
MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities, including literature, arts, history and other disciplines.
ASA (American Sociological Association) style is used in many sociology courses.
For help with these citation styles and more, consult our research guide, Citing Sources & Style Guides. An excellent resource that we recommend is the Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL).
MLA Handbook by 
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association by 
