United States History: Writing and Citing

Updated 8/30/14

How documentation works

There are several specific styles of documentation, but all have the same idea: When you borrow another's information, you explicitly say in your paper what is borrowed and where it is from.

The documentation style you use depends on the academic discipline. The ACC History Department used to require that you use Turabian or Chicago Style format, and many faculty still do.  Your professor will tell you which style to use.

• Turabian Documentation Style Guide used primarily by history and other social science disciplines, as well as humanities and by individuals who just need a good documentation style for their paper and no other style has been required.
• MLA (Modern Language Association) Documentation style, used primarily by those in literary studies, as well as some of the humanities. Uses parenthetical in-text citations and bibliography (Works Cited Page) at end of paper.
• APA (American Psychological Association) Documentation style, used by scholars in psychology, nursing, and various social science fields. Uses parenthetical in-text citations and a bibliography (Reference List) at end of paper.

Web sites that can assist you in creating a citation in the proper format for Turabian, MLA, and APA are:

• Chegg Writing Citation Generator -- automatically create quick citations with our easy-to-use generator. Cite sources in 7,000+ writing styles including MLA, APA, and Chicago.
• NoodleBib Express -- with more electronic resources being used for research, this citation generator will assist you in citing electronic resources in Turabian (Chicago), MLA or APA format.
• KnightCite Citation Service -- this site allows you to fill in a form that creates a citation for you in Turabian, MLA or APA. It's not magic though. You still have to know the elements of a citation and fill in additional information in order for it to produce correct citations.

Why is it necessary to show where words and ideas of others are used in your writing?  When you use information from other authors in your writing, you must be honest about revealing your sources. To do this, various formal methods of acknowledging where you gathered information have been developed. These methods are called "documentation." 

Check out our guide:

Documentation and Plagiarism