How to Write an Academic Research Paper

The purpose of this page is to help you cite the sources you use for your academic papers and essays.  Different disciplines use different citation styles, but the two used styles at WGTC are the MLA Style and the APA Style.  Please use the tabs on the left to go to the different sections.   

A citation is a way to tell your readers where you found your sources, and it also gives your readers enough information (such as author, title, page numbers, etc.) to find the sources themselves.  A citation can be in-text (when the author's name is part of a sentence) or parenthetical (when the author's name and the page number appear in parentheses). Many citations are both, with some of the information placed in the sentence and some in parentheses.

A citation style is a set of rules that tells you how to format your citations and what information you have to include. It is a standardized documentation format set and regulated by a specific organization, such as the Modern Language Association, which governs the MLA style. Citation styles are used not only in formal publishing, but also in colleges and universities.

In the MLA Style, the Works Cited list is the last page of your paper/essay, where you list your sources. In the APA style, this list is titled References.

A bibliography is a list of works (books, articles, etc.) that can be used for background or further reading. Sometimes these lists contain descriptive notes, which add details to the list. If this is the case, then the list is referred to as an annotated bibliography.