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309 19th Ave. S. Minneapolis, MN 55455
Email: bvetruba@umn.edu
Related Guides
What are citations?
Citations indicate:
- which ideas are taken from others
- from whom those ideas were taken; give credit where credit is due
- allow researchers to find, read, and comment on each others’ sources
- Tutorial: What are citations?Understand what citations are, why they are important, and how to create and use them.
Citation Styles
APA, Chicago, and MLA are some of the main citation styles for research papers. Linguists tend to use APA, MLA, the Unified Style from the Linguistic Society of America or the Generic Style Rules for Linguistics (which your instructor is recommending you to use).
Below are resources to help you cite properly. You can also ask Brian Vetruba, your librarian for this course, for citation assistance.
- Chicago Manual of Style OnlineThis resource provides online access to the latest edition of The Chicago Manual of Style, which covers a variety of topics from manuscript preparation and publication to grammar, usage, and citation formating. The citation quick guide covers both the author-date and the notes and bibliography systems.
MLA Handbook (9th edition) by Call Number: TC Wilson Library Reference LB2369 .M52 2021ISBN: 9781603293518Publication Date: 2021
MLA Handbook (8th edition) by Call Number: TC Wilson Library Reference LB2369 .G53 2016ISBN: 9781603292627Publication Date: 2016
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.) by Call Number: TC Wilson Library Reference BF76.7 .P83 2020ISBN: 9781433832161Publication Date: 2019
- Generic Style Rules for LinguisticsStyle recommended by your instructor.
- Citation Resources (OWL Purdue Online Writing Lab)TOP RESOURCE FOR CITATIONS. Provides lots of explanations and examples for APA, Chicago, MLA, and other styles.
- Documenting SourcesGive credit to those whose work you use in your own writing and help others find your sources. Find information on citing sources using major styles and avoiding plagiarism.
Citations Managers
What are citation managers? They are apps that allow you to import citation information from databases and catalogs, save PDFs, and format citations for your research using different citations styles (e.g. MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.). Some managers also allow you to include your own notes.
- Citation Managers (e.g. Zotero, Mendeley, etc.)Citation managers are software packages used to create personalized databases of citation information and notes. They allow you to: import and organize citation information from article indexes and other sources; save links to pdfs and other documents; format citations for your papers and bibliographies using APA and many other styles; and include your own notes.
You can add the Generic Style Rules for Linguistics to citation managers, including Zotero. To add to Zotero, do the following
- Open up the client version of Zotero
- Click on the CSL file for Generic Style Rules for Linguisitics. You should be prompted to add this as a citation style in Zotero.
- If this doesn't happen, go to "Preferences" under "Edit" in Zotero. Then click "Cite" and then "Get Additional Styles" and scroll to the Generic Style Rules for Linguistics. After you click on it, it will automatically be added.
- Citation Manager WorkshopsUMN Libraries offers a number of 1-hr. workshops on citation managers throughout the year. These include a general introduction to citation managers as well workshops on Zotero and EndNote. Registration required.
Besides citation managers, most library databases including Libraries Search, Linguistics, Language Behaviors Abstracts, MLA International Bibliography, and Google Scholar will generate citations that you can copy and paste. Look for quotation mark icon (") or the word "cite."