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ENGL 205: Business Communication in Its Rhetorical Contexts

MLA Style Guides, 9th Edition

MLA stands for Modern Language Association and is the citation style most commonly used for humanities subjects such as language, literature, composition and arts. 

 Basic MLA Formatting Guidelines: 

  • A Works Cited list should be organized alphabetically by author’s last name. If the last name is not available use the title. 
  • A Works Cited list should be double spaced with a hanging 1/2 inch indent.
  • In-Text citations should be placed directly after the quote or paraphrase. Information needed: (Author’s Last Name page number)
    • Parenthetical citation: “Direct quote” (Furlong 25).
    • Narrative citation, if the author is mentioned in the sentence, only provide the page #. Example: Furlong found that “direct quote” (25)
  • Publication date should be formatted day month year with the month abbreviated. It could also be: month year or season year. Examples:
    • 26 July 2016
    • Dec. 2015
    • spring 2016
    • Abbreviations: If the month is more than 4 letters, abbreviate as follows: Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec.

MLA Style Center provide citation guideline for common titles of online works.

APA Style Guides, 7th edition

APA stands for American Psychological Association and is the citation style most commonly used in social and behavioral sciences, inclduing fields like psychology, education, sociology, and business.

Basic APA Formatting Guidelines 

  • Reference list entries are alphabetized by author’s last name or equivalent.
  • Reference lists are doubled spaced with a hanging 1/2 inch indent after the first line of each entry
  • References (in bold) should appear at the top center of the page.
  • When referring to books, chapters, articles, or webpage titles, capitalize only the first letter of the first word of a title and subtitle, the first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and proper nouns
  • Cite up to the first 20 authors. Separate the authors name with a comma, and place the & symbol prior to the last name. 
    • Example: Last, F. M., Last, F. M., & Last, F. M.
  • In-text citations are placed directly after the quote or paraphrase. Information needed: (Author's Last Name, Year, page number). 
    • Parenthetical citation: “Direct quote” (Furlong, 2015, p.25).
    • Narrative citation, if the author is mentioned in the sentence, place the year after the last name and the page number after the quote. Example: Furlong (2015) found that “direct quote” (p. 25)

View the APA Style website for additional style and grammar guidelines.

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