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CCS 146 : The Seven Deadly Sins

Making sense of citations

Citations are key to participating in the scholarly community; they provide all of the information you need to find out more about a given source.

While citations can be formatted in a variety of styles (most often MLA, APA, or Chicago depending on the discipline) they contain common elements that you can recognize and use to determine if the citation is for a book, book chapter, journal article, newspaper article, or other source. Understanding what kind of item the citation is for can help you understand how and where to find it in the library catalog or database. 

Typical elements of a citation include:

  • The author or authors name or names
  • The title of the work
  • The date of publication 
  • The name of the publication where it was published (if it is an article)
  • The volume and/or issue number (for journals)
  • Page numbers
  • Publisher name and location (for books) 

Below are some examples of citations, and some helpful tips for figuring out what the citation is for:

Book

Naylor, R. T. 2011. Crass Struggle : Greed, Glitz, and Gluttony in a Wanna-have World. MontreĢal : McGill-Queen's University Press.
  • A clue for books is that the publisher's name and sometimes the location will always be included. 
  • Notice that the title of the book is indicated by italics. 
Book Chapter

 

Robertson, Anne Walters. 2012. "The Seven Deadly Sins in Medieval Music." In Sin in Medieval and Early Modern Culture, edited by Richard G. Newhauser and Susan J. Ridyard. Boydell & Brewer.
  • Here, notice the publisher's name and location, as well as quotation marks around the chapter name and italics for the book's title.
  • The presence of all three of these elements will help you understand that this is a book chapter. 
Journal Article

 

Protasi, Sara. 2017. "'I'm Not Envious, I'm just Jealous!': On the Difference between Envy and Jealousy." Journal of the American Philosophical Association 3 (3): 316–333. doi:10.1017/apa.2017.18.
  • A great clue for journal articles is the presence of an issue/volume number (62) toward the end of the citation.
  • Again, notice the quotation marks which usually indicate either a book chapter or article title. 
Newspaper Article 

Cutruzzula, Kara. 2023. "Turn Envy from Deadly Sin to a Superpower." Wall Street Journal, Eastern Edition, Oct 25.
  • Newspapers may or may not include an author's name, but they will always include the title of the newspaper in italics and the location where it was published.
  • Newspaper citations often include the month, day, and year of publication. 

Evaluating Sources

Once you've found your source, you'll want to evaluate it to be sure it meets your needs. While it is important to be able to identify whether a source is primary, secondary, or tertiary, it's equally important to be aware of a source's intended audience, and to evaluate its author's credibility and authority.

Make a copy of the worksheet below and use the questions to evaluate several of your recent course readings.