Citing & Referencing

Referencing is a formal, structured method of giving credit to the authors and works who you have consulted in creating an academic work such as an essay, a paper, an assignment, or a project. 

There are many referencing styles which were developed by institutions such as universities and professional bodies, such as:  

• The Harvard System
• University of Chicago 
• American Psychological Association (APA)
• Modern Language Association of America (MLA)

We use MLA, 9th edition, abbreviated as MLA 9. 

The terms 'citing' and 'referencing' can be used more or less interchangeably. However, citing is more specific than referencing. Citing means using a properly formatted citation to refer to the work of other authors, in your own work. In order to cite your sources, you must first create a citation. 

1. Citations

A citation is a list of important information needed to identify the work, its author(s) and publisher, as well as details which a third party would need in order to find and verify the information, such as page number (for a physical work) or URL (for a web source). 

Here is an example of a citation for the following work: 

Rush, James R. Southeast Asia : a Very Short Introduction. Oxford UP, 2018.

The citations are listed in alphabetical order by author on a separate page under the heading Works Cited. This is known as the Works Cited list or Works Cited page. 

2. In-text Citations

In-text citations are an abbreviated form of the full citation in your Works Cited list. They are used within the text of your written work in order to show where you are using others' ideas or information. There are several ways to write in-text citations, but in general you must always refer to the author and year of publication. 

Here is an example of an in-text citation for the work above: 

(Rush, 2018)

For more help with in-text citations, see the Notecards feature in NoodleTools. You can also find more examples in the section of this guide titled, 'How to reference...'.