THE STANDARD

CITATION AND
REFERENCING
STYLES
Practical Research 2:Quantitative Research
Objectives

Differentiate the various

styles or research writing
Use the various styles of

research writing
General Writing Tips
1. Other literature reviews and related
articles should be used as guide quotations.
Quotations are extremely rare in scientific
writing. Technical language is used if exact
wording or definition of a term is needed
General Writing Tips
2. Using the first person should be avoided
Example:
WRONG: I will show that literature on treating juvenile
murders is sparse and suffers from the same problems
as the general literature. Unfortunately, I have found
that most of the treatment results are based on the
clinical case reports
General Writing Tips
2. Using the first person should be avoided
Example:
Right: The literature on treating juvenile murders is
sparse and suffers from the same problems as the
general literature. Most of the treatment results are
based on the clinical case reports
General Writing Tips
3. Using Colloquial, informal or slang words should be
limited to specific cases only. Academically sound
language should be used
Example conducted a study instead of did a study
Examined instead of looked at
Utilize instead of use
Great Deal instead of Lot
General Writing Tips
4. The paper should be organized
according to topics and not by chronology.
The paper should be built with clear thesis.
Good writing should have logical and
organized evidence for arguments or
theory
General Writing Tips
5. It should be concise
6. Revise and rewrite
7. It is imperative to develop good citation
habits. It plagiarism to use other writers
words and ideas and pass them as ones
own
General Writing

Style Format Tips

General Writing Style Format Tips
1. If name(s) are the first part of
the citation, they are capitalized
and listed(i.e. last name, first name,
and then initials of the first name/s)
General Writing Style Format Tips
2. Separate names with a comma(,)
and use ampersand (&) before the
last author
General Writing Style Format Tips

3. Use Ed. For one editor

and Eds. For multiple
General Writing Style Format Tips

4. Capitalize the first word

in titles and subtitles and
proper names
General Writing Style Format Tips

5. Place of publication
should be included the
name of city
General Writing Style Format Tips
6. If your citing a book
chapter or section you must
indicated the pages. Use p. for
single page and pp. for
multiple pages
General Writing Style Format Tips

7. Put a space after p.

and put a dash (-)
between numbers
What are APA
and MLA?
 APA
APA- Stands for: American Psychological Association.
Who they are: Based in Washington, DC, the American
Psychological Association (APA) is a scientific and
professional organization that represents psychology in
the United States. With 150,000 members, APA is the
largest association of psychologists worldwide.
(American Psychological Association, n.d.)
The Reason We Use APA

(American
Psychological Association, n.d.)
APA Layout
APA is also concerned with visually laying out information on the page in a
way that makes it easy to process. For this reason, APA insists on double-
spaced documents and one-inch margins on all sides of the text. In terms of
font, APA prefers 12-point Times New Roman. In terms of paper size,
standard 8.5 x 11 is required.
APA style asks for a title page for all documents. This title page should
include the title of the work being presented, the name of the author, and
the school or institution with which they are. affiliated.
 MLA
MLA-Stands for: Modern Language Association.
Who they are: Founded in 1883, the Modern Language Association
of America provides opportunities for its members to share their
scholarly findings and teaching experiences with colleagues and to
discuss trends in the academy. MLA members host annual
conventions and other meetings, work with related organizations,
and sustain one of the finest publishing programs in humanities.
(Modern Language Association 3/15/09)
MLA style is more popular in the United States than APA.
Its also quote popular abroad in countries such as China,
Brazil, and Japan.
The Reason We Use MLA
All fields of research agree on the need to document scholarly borrowings,
but documentation conventions vary because of the different needs of
scholarly disciplines. MLA style for documentation is widely used in the
humanities, especially in writing on language and literature. Generally
simpler and more concise than other styles, MLA style features brief
parenthetical citations in the text keyed to an alphabetical list of works
cited that appears at the end of the work. (Modern Language Association
3/15/09)

The MLA standard would more regularly be used in language and

literature fields of study.
MLA
MLA asks for double-spaced content, one-inch
margins, and 12-point copy, preferably Times New
Roman. However, unlike APA, they dont ask for a
title page. The two major components of an MLA
paper are the article itself and the page that cites
the works referenced within the text.