Citation Generator

What Is a Citation and Why It Matters

A citation is a formal reference to a source you used in your research, giving credit to the original author and letting your reader find that source themselves. Citing sources properly avoids plagiarism, backs up your claims with evidence, and is a required part of nearly every academic paper. This tool generates the full reference list entry (the detailed source description that goes in your Works Cited, Reference List, or Bibliography page) rather than the short in-text citation you place inside your paragraphs - those two are related but different, and most instructors require both.

APA Style

APA (American Psychological Association) style is the standard in the social sciences: psychology, education, sociology, nursing, and business. It emphasizes the publication date, placing it right after the author's name, which reflects the sciences' focus on how recent a source is. A typical APA website reference looks like: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of page. Site Name. URL.

MLA Style

MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most common in the humanities: English, literature, and other language and arts courses. It puts more weight on authorship and titles rather than dates, and it also asks for the date you accessed the page, since web content can change or disappear. A typical MLA website entry looks like: Author Last, First. "Title of Page." Site Name, Year, URL. Accessed Day Month Year.

Chicago Style

Chicago style (notes-bibliography format) is widely used in history and some other humanities fields. It also includes an access date for web sources and places the URL at the very end. A typical Chicago bibliography entry looks like: Author Last, First. "Title of Page." Site Name. Accessed Month Day, Year. URL.

Common Citation Mistakes to Avoid

• Mixing styles within one paper - pick one style and use it consistently throughout.
• Forgetting the access date for web sources in MLA and Chicago, since online content can be edited or removed.
• Citing a source but never mentioning it in the body of the paper with a matching in-text citation.
• Leaving out the site or publisher name, which readers need to judge how credible the source is.
• Not double-checking capitalization rules - APA sentence-cases titles, while MLA and Chicago title-case them.