For books, this includes the author, the title of the book, the editors (if it has named editors), the name of the essay plus the page numbers of the essays, the publishing company, the place of publication, the date of publication, and where you found the book (more for your own purposes). If you are using a journal article, you’ll need the author’s name, the name of the article, the name of the journal, the volume and issue number, the date of publication, the page numbers of the article, and likely the DOI (digital object identifier—a number like an ISBN for books) and/or the database or website you found the article.

One helpful way of keeping track of your sources is to write source cards. These are small note cards that contain all of the relevant information on a particular source. Source cards are a neat and convenient way of organizing your sources - you can store all of your source cards in a small box or folder, in alphabetical order.

However, in some instances, you may also need to reference sources that were beneficial to your argument, but that you didn’t end up citing in the paper. These sources shouldn’t be listed on the reference page itself, but on a separate page, such as the Modern Language Association’s “Work Consulted” page. It is more common to use only a “Works Cited” page, therefore you should only include a “Works Consulted"page if your teacher or professor requests it.

For instance, you may be required to use American Psychological Association style (APA), the Modern Language Association’s guidelines (MLA), Chicago style, or American Sociological Association style (ASA). You’ll find examples of each of these styles in the section below. Each will have you create slightly different references, though you will use the same basic information.

When you have multiple works by the same author, you can also use the title to decide which reference comes first in an alphabetized list.

Double-space your reference page just as you double-spaced the rest of your paper. Use hanging indention. Hanging indentation is when the first line of each reference is all the way over to the left, while any subsequent lines are indented.

MLA: Roberts, Georgina. Eating Pie for Dinner. Waco: Great Books for Eating, 2002. Print. APA: Roberts, G. (2002). Eating pie for dinner. Waco, Texas: Great Books for Eating. Chicago: Roberts, Georgina. Eating Pie for Dinner. Waco, Texas: Great Books for Eating, 2002. ASA: Roberts, Georgina. 2002. Eating Pie for Dinner. Waco, TX: Great Books for Eating. Note that the two styles used most often in the sciences, APA and ASA, both place higher value on the date, pushing it closer to the beginning of the reference. Chicago and MLA are used more often in the humanities, so the date is not quite as important in those styles.

MLA: Thompson, Joy. “Pie for Life. " Bakers Anonymous 8. 2 (2005): 35-43. Web. 2 Feb. 2007. APA: Thompson, J. (2005). Pie for life. Bakers Anonymous, 8(2), 35-43. doi:102342343 Chicago: Thompson, Joy. “Pie for Life. " Bakers Anonymous 8, no. 2 (2005): 35-43. Accessed February 2, 2007. Doi: 102342343. ASA: Thompson, Joy. 2005. “Pie for Life. " Bakers Anonymous 8 (2):35-43.

If you want to go to the original sources, check out The Chicago Manual of Style, The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, or American Sociological Association (ASA) Style Guide.