College Composition / Unit 27 CMP 0665 review, 2 to 3 minutes
Recognizing a Style From a Citation
The idea
Recognizing which documentation style a citation follows means reading its signals: the position of the date, the form of names, and the punctuation.
In practice
This worked example is constructed for this course. Consider four citations for the same book, by an author named Lena Ortiz, titled Rivers of the Plains, published by a university press. The first is a parenthetical citation in the text giving Ortiz and a page number only. That pattern, author and page with no year, is MLA. The second is a parenthetical citation giving Ortiz, a comma, the year, a comma, and p with the page. The year right after the author, and the p before the page, mark APA. The third is a raised numeral in the text pointing to a note that reads: Lena Ortiz, the italicized title, the press and year in parentheses, and the page. A numbered note, with the name in normal order and the publication facts in parentheses, is Chicago notes and bibliography. The fourth is a list entry: Ortiz, a comma, L, a period, then the year in parentheses, then the title in italics with only the first word capitalized, then the press. Initials, the year in parentheses right after the name, and sentence-case capitalization mark an APA reference. Each style carries the same information, but the order and punctuation reveal which one a writer used, and a revision item asking which citation is consistent with a paper's style turns on exactly these signals.
Where people slip
Do not decide by one feature alone. Both MLA and Chicago bibliographies give full first names; what separates them is the date's position and punctuation. Check two or three signals before naming a style.
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