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Citing Sources Guide

Iona University Libraries Research Guide on Citing Source

Citations


Basic Rules

Use the author's last name followed by the page.

The author's name may be placed within the text of the sentence, in which case, only place the page number in parentheses.

If there is no individual author, use a "corporate" (or group) author, such as "U.S. Government Printing Office" or "American Library Association."

If there is neither an author nor a corporate author, use an abbreviated form of the work's title in the parenthetical citation.

To cite quotes and paraphrases in text, use these formats:

Single Author

(Mantel) or (Mantel 22) or (Mantel 22-24)

Two Authors

(King and Straub) or (King and Straub 45) or (King and Straub 45-46)

Multiple Authors (more than two)

(Griliches et al.) or (Griliches et al. 145) or (Griliches et al. 145 - 52)

No author - Use Organization or first noun from Work Cited 

(Arabian) or ("Tell-tale") or (U.S. Senate) use the text format of the first item in the reference - italics, quotations, or name of Organization. Follow the same format for single or multiple pages as above.

Poem

Quoting lines 26, 27, & 28

(Donne 26-28)

AI - Use the beginning of the prompt so the reference can be identified on your Work Cited page

("Describe how Animal")

Group Author with an Abbreviation

First citation:

(World Health Organization [WHO])

Subsequent citations:

(WHO)

Place quotations longer than four typed lines in a free-standing block.

A block is:

  • introduced with your own words followed by a colon 
  • on a new line
  • indented 0.5

Example:

A. A. Milne introduces his main character called Edward Bear, only to change the name shortly afterward to Winnie-the-Pooh:

Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it. And then he feels that perhaps there isn't. Anyhow, here he is at the bottom, and ready to be introduced to you. Winnie-the-Pooh. (1)

 

Because the introductory sentence included the author's name in the text, the only citation needed is the page number.

Work Cited

Milne, A A. Winnie-the-Pooh. Illustrated by Ernest H Shepard, McClelland & Stewart, Ltd, 1926, Project Guttenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/67098/67098-h/67098-h.htm.