Communication Studies

• APA 7th Quick Guide by Jamie Johnson

  This guide includes citation examples for a variety of sources, information on in-text citations, and a sample reference list.

• Sample Student Paper 7th edition

Please be sure to consult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association 7th edition and/or the APA Style website for additional details.

• MLA Style Quick Guide, 9th Edition 
• MLA Formatting Guide, OWL at Purdue
• Columbia College, MLA 9th: Social Media

For more information, consult the MLA Style Guides, 9th Edition page and MLA Style Center Using MLA Format.

The Chicago citation style is common in the publishing industry. Here are some resources to help you:

• The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition 
• Citing Archival Materials in Chicago
• Chicago Formatting and Style Guide from the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University

See the What is an Annotated Bibliography? page for more information.

An annotated bibliography is a list of sources (books, articles, websites, etc.) with short paragraph about each source. An annotated bibliography is sometimes a useful step before drafting a research paper, or it can stand alone as an overview of the research available on a topic.

Each source in the annotated bibliography has a citation - the information a reader needs to find the original source, in a consistent format to make that easier. These consistent formats are called citation styles.  The most common citation styles are MLA (Modern Language Association) for humanities, and APA (American Psychological Association) for social sciences.

Annotations are about 4 to 6 sentences long (roughly 150 words), and address:

•     Main focus or purpose of the work
•     Usefulness or relevance to your research topic 
•     Special features of the work that were unique or helpful
•     Background and credibility of the author
•     Conclusions or observations reached by the author
•     Conclusions or observations reached by you

Annotations versus Abstracts

Many scholarly articles start with an abstract, which is the author's summary of the article to help you decide whether you should read the entire article.  This abstract is not the same thing as an annotation.  The annotation needs to be in your own words, to explain the relevance of the source to your particular assignment or research question.