Style Guide

In author-date citations, you signal that you have used a source by placing a parenthetical citation (including author, date, and relevant page numbers) next to your reference to it:

By 1911, according to one expert, an Amazon was "any woman rebel--which, to a lot of people, meant any girl who left home and went to college" (Lepore 2014, 17).

At the end of the paper, you list all sources in a reference list. That list normally includes every source you cited in a parenthetical citation and sometimes others you consulted but did not cite. Each reference list entry includes complete bibliographical information for a source. The publication date immediately follows the name of the author, making it easy to follow a parenthetical citation to its corresponding entry in the reference list: 

Lepore, Jill. 2015.  The Secret History of Wonder Woman.  New York: Vintage Books.

The Basic Pattern for Common Sources

Although sources and their citations come in almost endless variety, you are likely to use only a few kinds. While you may need to look up details to cite some unusual sources, you can easily learn the basic patterns for the few kinds you will use most often. 

Book - Single Author

Journal Article

• Center the title "Reference List" at the top of the page and add two blank lines after.
• Apply half-inch hanging indents for each entry.
• Single-space each entry, and add a blank line between entries. 

• Immediately after a quotation or other material requiring a citation, include author and year within parentheses.
• There is no punctuation between author and year.
• The name and date must match the reference list entry exactly.