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Anatomy of an APA Citation from Dalhousie Libraries on Vimeo.
Dalhousie Libraries shows you what an APA citation is. Then we show you how to put one together properly and get it right the first time.
by Kala Hirtle, Dalhousie Writing Centre
MLA stands for The Modern Language Association; it is an author-page number citation style. Unlike Chicago style which uses footnotes or endnotes that include both the full references for sources and shortened versions of the full references, the MLA has two parts: in-text citations in the body of the paper and a Works Cited page which comes at the end of the paper. The two levels are designed to work together; the in-text citations give specific information (the author’s last name and the page number or range when applicable for the source) to direct readers to the Works Cited where they can find the full citation. The first MLA Reference Guide was published in 1951, and the MLA is now on its eighth edition. With each edition comes small changes meant to make the MLA an increasingly simple and flexible citation style. It is therefore important to know which edition you are expected to use.
Updated March 2025
CSE stands for the Council of Science Editors. As its name implies, this citation style is most commonly used in the sciences. For information on how to cite sources in CSE, please see the following resources:
IEEE is an organization dedicated to engineering, computing, and technology information. This citation style is commonly used in the computer sciences and in engineering. For information on how to cite sources in IEEE, please see the following resources: