Do you remember footnotes, index cards and bibliographies?  If you do chances are the last time that you wrote a research paper was in the late 80’s or early 90’s.  During the time that most of us including me decided to work instead of going to school things changed in the way of writing term papers.  Something called APA, MLA, and Chicago style came into being confusing the daylights out of most returning students.

In case your wondering what the alphabet of letters and the new style are be prepared to have most of what you knew about writing papers turned inside out in addition to how the paper is turned in.

APA

APA (American Psychological Association) is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences. offers examples for the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the reference page.  For the most part this will be the format that you will most likely use in your distance learning environment.

Example:

APA Offers Tips on Managing Anxiety About Swine Flu. (27  April). PR Newswire,***[insert pages]***. Retrieved April 30, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Dateline database. (Document ID: 1688980841)

MLA

MLA style has been widely adopted by schools, academic departments, and instructors for over half a century. The association’s guidelines are also used by over 1,100 scholarly and literary journals, newsletters, and magazines and by many university and commercial presses.

Example:

“APA Offers Tips on Managing Anxiety About Swine Flu. ” PR Newswire 27 April 2009 ***[insert pages]*** ABI/INFORM Dateline. ProQuest.  ***INSERT Library name or system, City, State***.  30 Apr. 2009 <http://www.proquest.com/>

Chicago

The Chicago Manual of Style presents two basic documentation systems, the humanities style (notes and bibliography) and the author-date system. Choosing between the two often depends on subject matter and nature of sources cited, as each system is favored by different groups of scholars.

The humanities style is preferred by many in literature, history, and the arts. This style presents bibliographic information in notes and, often, a bibliography. It accommodates a variety of sources, including esoteric ones less appropriate to the author-date system.

Example:

APA Offers Tips on Managing Anxiety About Swine Flu. 2009. PR Newswire April 27   ***[insert pages]*** http://www.proquest.com/ (accessed April 30, 2009). (Author Date)

“APA Offers Tips on Managing Anxiety About Swine Flu.” PR Newswire 27  April2009 ***[insert pages]*** http://www.proquest.com/ (accessed April 30, 2009). (Humanities)

As you can see there is little difference between the three styles.  This can get confusing which means that you will need a good reference tool by your side to get you through your classes. The Little Brown Compact Handbook with Exercises (MyCompLab Series) became my best friend very fast becasue it gave detailed informtion on all three styles and the elements needed to successfully write a paper on a college level.

In part two of this three part series I will cover the specific components of a research paper on the college level.