Most Commonly Used Citation Style – Guide

Being a student, you must be aware of references and citations because academic work is incomplete if it does not contain citations of authentic sources. Almost all students have an idea about citations but only a few know how to cite the sources. There are several citation styles that can help you with citing the sources. Citations styles are basically compiled rules that guide you about how to cite a source in academic writing.

Adding citations are extremely important to avoid plagiarism in your work. Every citation style is published as a proper handbook which contains all the instructions, examples, and explanations regarding citation of sources. There are three citation styles that are most commonly used by academic writers. These citation styles include MLA, Chicago, and APA.

Remember, choosing a citation style depends heavily on the nature of the academic field e.g., MLA is mostly used in the field of humanities. On the other hand, academic writers from the field of history prefer to use the Chicago bibliography and history. So, it is important to consider your field before choosing a citation style for your academic paper.

Among all the citation styles, MLA and APA are the most common. However, APA is most preferred because it is comparatively simple and popular among all fields or you can ask others to write my paper.

APA citation style

Initially, APA citations were only restricted to the field of Psychology Social Sciences but now it is used almost in every field including education, nursing, business, communications, natural sciences, behavioral sciences, engineering, etc.

Like every other citation style, APA citations contain different rules of citations for distinct sources e.g., the citation style of a book is different from that of an article. It is undeniable that adding citations is an extremely daunting task and being a student, you might come across essays that require multiple sources. But do not worry, just hire an academic professional, and pay for essay. The citations added by the professional essay writer will help you a lot in understanding the APA citation style.

In-text citation in APA

For parenthetical citation, APA uses the author-date system which means that you have to mention the last name of the author following the date of publication. Citing in APA is not rocket science, you can easily understand it once you go through a sample. I remember, when I was assigned the first essay that needs citations, I requested an online writer to write my essay with two to three citations. The writer’s sample work helped me a lot in writing the citation on my own.

For a book, the style for parenthetical citation is slightly different. Here you must bear in mind that you have to mention page number after the date of publication e.g., (Simpson, p. 12). The page number will help the reader to locate the quote that you have used in your academic paper.

For narrative citation of the articles, you have to provide the name of the author at the beginning of the sentence followed by the date of publication mentioned in parentheses e.g., “Simpson claimed”. The date of publication can also be written at the end of the quotation.

Why is APA citation so popular?

One reason as to why most of the journal articles and books are cited in APA style is because American Psychological Associations keeps the citation guidelines updated that also reflects the times e.g., the 7th edition launched, endorsed the use of the singular “they” to indicate that gender is irrelevant to the meaning of a sentence.

In addition to this, APA has made citation a lot easier for the students e.g., in the 7th edition, you are not required to mention the place of publication for a book reference. APA has also sought out the database problems. Now, there is no need to add database names in bibliographies.

If you are still confused, get help from an essay writing services now.