Skip to Main Content
Ask CWU Libraries
CWU Libraries Home

Art + Design

Citation Styles

There are many different citation styles that are used in academic writing. Typically your professor will let you know the preferred citation style for their class and/or your discipline. Below you will find a table of four common citation styles, followed by a list of less-common citation styles:

The Purdue OWL. Purdue U Writing Lab, 2010. Web.

Citation Styles

When to Use Them

More Info at Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL)

Example Paper

MLA- Modern Language Association Literature and the humanities MLA Formatting & Style Guide MLA Example Paper
APA- American Psychological Association Psychology, Business, Criminology, Economics, Education, and Sociology

APA Style Guide (American Psychological Association)

APA Sample Paper
Chicago Humanities, history and social sciences Chicago Style & Formatting Guide Chicago Sample Paper
Chicago-Turabian Humanities, history, social sciences and natural sciences (often selected when people do not know which style to use) Chicago-Turabian Style & Formatting Guide Chicago-Turabian Sample Paper

Using Citations from OneSearch

It is often possible to pull auto-generated citations directly from a database. Here is a tutorial video that explains how to pull a citation from OneSearch: