The Ultimate Style Guide Resources for MLA, APA, Chicago, and CSE

In today's academic and professional world, standardized formatting is usually required. Starting as early as high school, students are asked to write papers in MLA, APA, Chicago, and CSE. This is both to avoid plagiarism and establish a standard and easy-to-follow format for teachers, professors, and employers. Unfortunately, the books on these styles are often extensive, dense, and confusing. This article is designed to help students and professionals understand the four major styles.

Here you will find resource pages for each different style, university tutorials, and free works cited generators. By viewing examples of research papers and using programs that are designed to facilitate your style accuracy, you can be sure that your completed paper is perfect.

Modern Language Association (MLA) Resource Guide
American Psychological Association (APA) Resource Guide
Chicago / Turabian Resource Guide
Council of Science Editors Style (CSE) Resource Guide

Modern Language Association (MLA) Resource Guide

MLA is most commonly used in the humanities. This includes English, foreign languages, philosophy, religion, art, architecture, and literature.

General Resources:

Bedford / St. Martin's MLA Updates
Bedford and St. Martin's has PDF versions of sections of the MLA handbook. You can download entire chapters…for free!

Cite Planet
This site has citations pre-made for thousands of books in over 40 subjects. It allows students to search for the sources they need, and copy and paste the citation. Most (if not all) citations have a link to the original source.

ERC Quick Guide: Citing Electronic Resources with MLA
This site has a few great links to resources, as well as an extensive list of examples for any and all electronic sources.

MLA Style Crib Sheet
The MLA Style Crib Sheet provides extensive descriptions of general MLA style notes, text and block quotations, page formatting, MLA text citations, and the MLA works cited.

Modern Language Association (MLA)
This is the official site of the Modern Language Association. It features their latest publications, a brief overview of what MLA style is, membership qualifications, and events and conventions on MLA.

The Online Writing Center (OWL) at Purdue
The Owl at Purdue has excellent overview information, example papers, and individual work cited examples. It also has links and information on where you can buy the books.

Research and Documentation Online
At this site, you choose a discipline (i.e. humanities), and then select which part of your project you need assistance on (i.e. MLA manuscript format). After you have made your selections the site takes you to a clearly laid out page designed to answer any and all questions you may have with examples and brief descriptions.

University Resources:

American Academy of Art
This site has style guides, research and writing tips, citing sources examples, and also news and events. Further, it also has a few excellent links to outside resources.

Anne Arundel Community College
Anne Arundel has different section for every type of source you may encounter when writing a bibliography. It gives several examples for each type.

Capital Community College
Capital Community College provides sample works cited, grammar and writing tips, paper format examples, plagiarism rules, and even how to write outlines in MLA. Overall, CCC is a very useful guide.

Cornell University Library
The Cornell University Library has an MLA citation style guide, examples of citing sources in the text, a work cited list, and other examples of documentation styles.

Duke University Libraries
Provides examples and descriptions on how to cite sources within a paper, as well as a section on assembling a list of works cited.

Southwestern College Library
Among a few excellent links to resources, the SWC Library also provides PDF versions of the MLA Citation Guide 6 th and 7 th Editions.

UNC University Libraries
The UNC University Library web site has sections on in-text citations, print sources, online sources, and sample works-cited pages. It also has an essay on the objectives of MLA.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
This is a fantastically organized site. It clearly breaks up every single type of citation you may encounter. It also has a grammar handbook, ESL resources, and writing tips.

University of Maryland University College
This college web site has a great list of works cited examples.

Washington State University
Washington State University provides excellent MLA style guide print resources that are easily downloadable. It also has several good links to other resources.

Free Works Cited Generators:

Bibcheck
This MLA style generator provided here does a great job formatting works cited. However, you must register for the site to benefit from many of its features.

EasyBib
Choose which style you need your work cited to be in and then fill in the blanks from there. EasyBib will put your sources into the correct format.

NoodleTools
NoodleTools is the oldest works cited generators. It is an excellent tool, but be careful to only use "NoodleBib MLA Starter" or "NoodleBib Express." The others may charge you a fee.

Son of Citation Machine
Simply select the style you need (MLA), pick the source type (i.e. book) and continue to fill in the blanks. Son of Citation Machine will generate a correctly formatted works-cited in a matter of seconds.

WorksCited4U
Select the style you want and follow the instructions. This site is very easy to use and extremely reliable.

American Psychological Association (APA) Resource Guide

APA is most commonly used in the social sciences. This includes business and economics, communication studies, criminal justice, education, geography, law, political science, and sociology.

General Resources:

American Psychological Association
The official site for APA has free tutorials, links to the books, style guides, instructional aids, and online courses. The site also has a large section on the latest psychology news and events.

APA Style Crib Sheet for College Papers
APA Style Crib Sheet gives a summary of APA style. Topics include APA editorial, page formats, research documentation, and sample references.

APA Style Essentials
This site has links to sites where you can buy the APA style book. It also has information and examples of APA documents, guidelines, title pages, abstracts, bodies, text citations, quotations, references, appendixes, footnotes, tables, and figures. Lastly, the entire document is easy to download in a PDF file.

Cite Planet
This site has previously made citations in over 40 subjects. It allows students to search for the sources they need, saving students time and energy. Most (if not all) citations have a link to the original source.

Psychology with Style: A Hypertext Writing Guide
Not only does this site have excellent examples of sample APA research papers, it also goes over other general topics such as abbreviations, quotations, and style details.

The Online Writing Center (OWL) at Purdue
The Owl at Purdue has excellent overview information, example papers, and individual work cited examples. It also has links and information on where you can buy the APA style guide books.

Research and Documentation Online
At this site, you choose a discipline (i.e. social sciences), and then select which part of your project you need assistance on (i.e. APA manuscript format). After you have made your selections the site takes you to a clearly laid out page designed to answer any and all questions you may have with examples and brief descriptions.

University Resources:

Capital Community College
Capital Community College has frequently asked questions, examples of figures and tables, quotation tutorials, a section on last minute corrections, and an extensive works cited section.

Cornell University Library
The Cornell University Library has fantastic works cited examples with descriptions.

C.W. Post Campus
This site has excellent, clear examples of various correct APA source citations. Very easy to follow.

Georgia Southern University
An excellent resource for examples of correct work citations.

North Seattle Community College
North Seattle provides PDF files of APA style guides.

The Ohio State University
The Ohio State University library gives excellent examples of works cited for books, articles, and electronic resources.

The University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
This is a fantastically organized site for APA tutorials. It clearly breaks up every single type of citation you may encounter. It also has a grammar handbook, ESL resources, and writing tips.

The University of Wisconsin - Madison
An excellent source for APA. This site goes over parenthetical citations, reference lists, formatting papers, APA headings, and basic guidelines.

Wesmont College
This section of the psychology web site for Wesmont College gives you clear examples of APA style papers using Microsoft Word. The great thing about this site is that it explains how to accomplish each formatting feature on MSWord. Therefore, if you are ever confused about how to insert page numbers are page breaks, this is an excellent resource.

William Paterson University of New Jersey
Another site with fantastic examples of correct APA citations.

Free Works Cited Generators:

EasyBib
Choose which style you need your work cited to be in and then fill in the blanks from there. EasyBib will put your sources into the correct format.

NoodleTools
NoodleTools is the oldest works cited generators. It is an excellent tool, but be careful to only use "NoodleBib Express." The others may charge you a fee.

Son of Citation Machine
Simply select the style you need (APA), pick the source type (i.e. book) and continue to fill in the blanks. Son of Citation Machine will generate a correctly formatted works-cited in a matter of seconds.

WorksCited4U
Select the style you want and follow the instructions. This site is very easy to use and extremely reliable.

Chicago / Turabian Resource Guide

Chicago is primarily used for history papers. This includes world history, American history, and British history.

General Resources:

The American Anthropological Association
Style AAA was based after The Chicago Manual of Style and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. It includes extensive and excellent information and examples on Chicago style.

Chicago Citation and Format Style Guide
This is a fantastic downloadable Chicago format guide. It is 16 pages long and well-worth the download as it covers everything from format to footnotes and endnotes.

Chicago Style Crib Sheet
Chicago Style Crib Sheet gives a summary of Chicago style. Topics include Chicago style and usage, page formatting, and endnotes and footnotes.

The Chicago Manual of Style Online
The Chicago Manual of Style goes over everything from how to write numbers in Chicago style to how to format tables and quotations. It has examples and a question and answer section.

The Online Writing Center (OWL) at Purdue
The Owl at Purdue has excellent overview information, example papers, and individual work cited examples. It also has links and information on where you can buy the Chicago style guide books.

Research and Documentation Online
At this site, you choose a discipline (i.e. social sciences), and then select which part of your project you need assistance on (i.e. APA manuscript format). After you have made your selections the site takes you to a clearly laid out page designed to answer any and all questions you may have with examples and brief descriptions.

University Resources:

Camosun College
Camosun College gives detailed examples of print sources, electronic sources, and quick links.

Concordia University Libraries
This site includes a section on parenthetical references and then an extensive list of examples of work citations.

The Ohio State University
The Ohio State University library gives excellent examples of works cited for books, articles, and electronic resources.

The University of Southern Mississippi Libraries
The USM guide includes a plethora of examples for every conceivable find of source in Chicago formatting.

Free Works Cited Generators:

EasyBib
Choose which style you need your work cited to be in and then fill in the blanks from there. EasyBib will put your sources into the correct format.

NoodleTools
NoodleTools is the oldest works cited generators. It is an excellent tool, but be careful to only use "NoodleBib Express." The others may charge you a fee.

Son of Citation Machine
Simply select the style you need (Chicago), pick the source type (i.e. book) and continue to fill in the blanks. Son of Citation Machine will generate a correctly formatted works-cited in a matter of seconds.

WorksCited4U
Select the style you want and follow the instructions. This site is very easy to use and extremely reliable.

Council of Science Editors Style (CSE) Resource Guide

CSE is most often used in the sciences. This includes biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, environmental sciences, geology, mathematics, nursing and health sciences, physics, and astronomy.

General Resources:

The Council of Science Editors
The official web site offers a link to the CSE book, information on events, the council, and editorial policies. It also has a section for members only.

CSE - Council of Science Editors
An excellent resource, this site goes over what CSE is, how to use it properly within your paper, and how to cite sources at the end of your paper.

Diana Hacker
An excellent source that gives an overview, examples, advice on how to find sources, and tips for evaluation the sources. It even has a glossary of research terms.

Online Citation Guide
This site gives a brief introduction and then jumps into examples of proper citations, parenthetical in-text citations, abbreviations, and paper formats.

Research and Documentation Online
At this site, you choose a discipline (i.e. social sciences), and then select which part of your project you need assistance on (i.e. APA manuscript format). After you have made your selections the site takes you to a clearly laid out page designed to answer any and all questions you may have with examples and brief descriptions.

University Resources:

Dakota State University
Dakota State University has in-text citation examples, as well as end references and examples.

The Ohio State University
The Ohio State University library gives excellent examples of works cited for books, articles, and electronic resources.

UNC University Libraries
The UNC library web site goes over in-text citations, print sources, online sources, sample bibliographies, and the objectives of CSE.