Help for Students

Citing sources gives your work credibility. It indicates that you have produced a work of scholarship. Using legitimate sources and crediting them properly demonstrates academic integrity. Citing your sources also helps you keep track of them for your own use, and it allows readers to track down your original sources. In this way you are adding to the scholarly conversation.

Different organizations and professions have developed and/or adopted specific rules for citing sources. This keeps the citations uniform and helps them be understood easily by others. These are the standard citation styles most often used at St. Louis Community College:

• English and Communication classes at STLCC use the MLA Style most often.
• Nursing, Psychology, and many Social Sciences classes use the APA Style.
• History and Journalism classes tend to use Chicago. 

Check with your instructor for requirements for a particular assignment.

Most English composition instructors at STLCC require the use of MLA Style. It is also used in scholarly and professional publications in literary studies and many of the humanities. 

Although APA style was developed for use in the publications of the American Psychological Association, it has been widely adopted by other fields  including social work, education, and nursing. 

Chicago style is used primarily by historians, journalists, and related fields of study. 

Different organizations and professions have developed and/or adopted specific rules for citing sources. This keeps the citations uniform and helps them be understood easily by others. When an assignment requires the use of a particular format, it is important to note the edition number of the manual and use the edition specified in the assignment.  If no edition is specified, use the most recent edition.