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Doresa holds a Ph.D. in Communication Studies.
Citing sources is an important part of essay writing. Today, the vast majority of our research is done online. Let's start our journey as we learn the proper way of citing information from sources found in our virtual world.
One of the first choices you need to make is what format you are using for documenting your sources. Two of the most common formats you will be asked to use is APA or MLA. Usually the format will be chosen by the instructor making the assignment. In our examples during this video, we are going to examine citing an online scholarly journal. In academic writing, this will be the most common type of citation you will be doing.
In order to cite an online scholarly journal in appropriate APA format, you'll need the name of the author, the year published, the title of the article, the title of the journal, the volume number(issue number if available), page range, and one final piece. This final component is the Digital Object Identifier or DOI, 'an alpha numeric string acting like a link.' When a DOI is unavailable, you can use the URL of the article. DOI's are preferred because they remain stagnant while traditional website links are subject to change quite frequently. Many publishers post DOI numbers on the first page of the online article.
Here is an example of a citation from an online scholarly journal. Let's take a couple of minutes to go over each section.
Barcelona, R. (2009). Pressing the online learning advantage: Commitment, content, and community. The Journal of Continuing Higher Education, 57(3), 193-197. doi:10.1080/07377360903262218
The first thing we notice is the name of the author and year in which this online article was published. Next you see the title of the article.
Following the title of the article we see the title of the publication followed by the volume number with the issue number in parenthesis.
After the issue number, we have the pages on which this particular article can be found.
Finally we have the DOI number. Remember, whenever possible use the DOI number when writing your citation. If the DOI number is unavailable, go ahead and use the full web address that links directly to the article, including the https://.
MLA is slightly different from APA. To cite sources using MLA you will need the author(s) name(s), the name of the article in quotation marks, the title of the publication in italics, all volume and issue numbers, and the year of publication. You should include the URL, DOI, or permalink to help people access the article.
If you are going to cite an entire website using MLA, it would look like this:
Editor, author, or compiler name (if available). Name of Site. Version number, Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher), date of resource creation (if available), URL, DOI or permalink. Date of access (if applicable).
As you can see, MLA format looks a bit different than APA. Let's revisit our citation from an online scholarly journal and see how it would look using MLA Format.
Barcelona, Robert J. 'Pressing the online learning advantage: Commitment, content, and community.' The Journal of Continuing Higher Education, vol. 57, no. 3, 2009, doi:10.1080/07377360903262218. Accessed 9 Sept. 2012.
Just like in APA formatting, the author's name appears first.
Next we see the title of the article in quotation marks followed by the title of the journal, the volume and issue number (note how those are cited differently than APA), and the date of publication. If this article was also found in print, you'd include page range here. The next piece of information is the article's DOI (use URL or permalink if DOI is unavailable). For MLA formatting, do 'not' include https:// in the URL.
The final piece of information we need is the date in which we retrieved or found this article online.
So, let's wrap up citing online sources by recapping what we've learned. The first step you need to complete is deciding which format you are going to use to cite your sources. APA and MLA formatting are the most common and are the two we reviewed in this video. Whenever you are using an online source you need the author as well as the date the article was published. The next piece of information you are going to need is the title of the article. If you are using a periodical or online scholarly journal, you'll also need the name of the publication and the volume and issue number if available. For either APA or MLA, the DOI number is best, but use the URL if that's unavailable. Remember, for MLA citing, do not include the https:// in the URL. If using MLA format, it's recommended to include the date on which you retrieved the information.
Happy citing!
After watching this lesson, you should be able to recognize the proper way to cite sources in APA and MLA formatting.
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English 104: College Composition I11 chapters | 105 lessons | 10 flashcard sets
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