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How to Write Citations For a Book - Formatting Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:47:00 +0000Posted by LousyWriter.com by Glen Ford
Merriam-Webster, on its website, defines a citation as "an act of quoting; especially: the citing of a previously settled case at law" or "an excerpt, quotation".
But to a writer a citation is the description, the identification of the origin of that quotation or excerpt. And to be a good citation it needs to contain certain information and be in a certain format.
There are in fact a number of different formats used for quotations. As a result it is always important for the writer to confirm the format being used by the periodical being submitted to. Having said that, the most commonly used formats are those specified in the Chicago Manual of Style. This manual is the basis of many of the styles used by others. Typically, a single version of the formats is selected and consistency is the key to a well formatted citation.
There are two forms of citation. The standalone citation is the most common. However, the inline citation is often used when many citations are found in the text. This type always requires a standalone citation in a separate list. We'll be discussing only the standalone citation in this article.
A good citation consists of the following information:
i. Name of the Author(s)
ii. Title of Article or Chapter
iii. Title of Magazine, Periodical or Book
iv. Volume or other identifier
v. Pages
vi. Place of Publication
vii. Publisher
viii. Date of Publication
ix. Other information that may be needed.
The name of the author is typically shown immediately following any number used to link the citation and the excerpt. It is normally displayed using the standard font for the area it is being shown in. For example, if used in a footnote, it will typically be shown in a smaller than normal font size. The name can be either presented as is normal in English, (given then family name) for example George Smith, or in a filing order (Smith, George) but should be consistently presented. If there are two authors, the second is always presented in normal order (George Smith) regardless of the order of the first name. If four or more authors the contraction et al. is frequently used as in George Smith et al.. However, if the filing order is used it is more common to find all authors names stated. The author's name is always followed by a comma.
The title is normally shown immediately following the author. If this is a chapter or an article the first name is typically printed using the same font as the name with quotations. The name of the book or periodical follows immediately after but in italics. Frequently this is preceded by the word "in". The volume is considered to be part of the title but follows the title.
The place of publication and publisher follows with the two separated by a semi-colon. This is always presented in the normal font and size.
For most, formats, the date immediately follows the publisher. Typically, only the year is used unless the article is from a popular magazine or newspaper. If the normal name order is used then a round bracket is used to mark the end. However, a simple comma is used in all other versions. It should also be noted that in one of the filing order formats, the date is placed between the author's name and the title.
Finally, any other information such as a website is presented.
The entire citation is completed by a period.
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