Content

• To step
• Method 1 of 4: The most important citation styles
• Method 2 of 4: Citing an APA style book
• Method 3 of 4: Citing books in MLA style
• Method 4 of 4: Citing an e-book
• Tips
• Warnings

Books are intellectual property. If you are writing an essay, article, or paper of any kind, and you are obtaining information or quoting from a book, you will need to name the author of that work. Failure to do so will be considered plagiarism. There are several ways to quote a book or other medium, the most common of which are listed below. But if you have to write a thesis, first check with your lecturer or professor whether and which citation style you have to comply with.

To step

Method 1 of 4: The most important citation styles

1. Learn what citation styles there are. Don't use more than one style for the references in your text - each style has very specific rules when it comes to capitalization, punctuation, and data placement. All styles are designed with the same goal: to give credit to the authors. Below you will find a number of commonly used styles:
   • Modern Language Association (MLA). This is a citation style mostly used within the science and humanities departments of universities.
   • American Psychological Association (APA). This citation style is often used in the social sciences and is the standard for articles for the American Psychological Association.
   • The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS). This citation style is often used when writing papers for the literature, history, and art directions. But the majority of scientists use the APA or MLA style for citations.

Method 2 of 4: Citing an APA style book

1. Stating a book reference in a text and on the reference list. According to the guidelines of APA (American Psychological Association), quotations from books should be mentioned in the text as well as in the reference list. Suppose you quote from the book, The Epic of America, then you mention it in the text with the title (in italics) and year of publication: The Epic of America, (1931). In addition, you also mention the book on your reference page, according to the specific formatting rules for citing authors, editors and books:
   • To quote from books: Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of the work (The first letter of the title in italics and in capital letters and the first letter of the first word of a subtitle. Place: Publisher. For example: Susanka, S. (2007). The not so big life: Making room for what really matters. New York, NY: Random House.
   • To quote from an edited book with unknown author: Brown, C., & Smith, A. (Eds.). (2010). How to make widgets. Boston, MA: ABC Publishing.
   • Citing a book with both an author and an editor: Gray, R. (2010). The path to glory. A. Anderson (Ed.). Boston, MA: ABC Publishing.
   • Quoting a translated book. Pierre, P. S. (1904). A journey through the mind. (Garvey T. Trans.). New York, NY: ABC Publishing.
   • Citing a book that is not a first edition. Aiken, M. E., (1997). The gold standard (7th ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
   • Quoting an article or chapter from an edited book. Lander, J. M., & Goss, M. (2010). How the west was settled. In T. Grayson (Ed.), The rockies and beyond (pp. 107-123). New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
   • Quoting a multi-part edited edition. Paulson, P. (Ed.). (1964). Encyclopedia of Inventions (Vols. 1-6). Amsterdam, NH: Scribner's.

Method 3 of 4: Citing books in MLA style

1. Cite a book in the MLA style within the text and in the “reference list”. The quotation in the text is in parentheses, which means that the source is in parentheses after citing the quote, or after paraphrasing something from a book.
2. Always include the author, (and / or editor) title of the book, date of publication, publisher, place of publication and medium (print, web, DVD, etc.)
3. Make sure your source list exactly matches the references in the text. The quote or phrase you use in your text should be listed first, to the left of the corresponding entry in your source list.
4. Cite books in the author-page style. The MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text references. Only the author of the book and the page number (or numbers) that refer to the quote or paraphrased passage need to be in the text, but this reference should be included in your source list in full as a reference.
   • Kingsolver stated that his prose was considered "pedantic" by many "at times" (Kingsolver 125). This informs the reader that comments by the author called Kingsolver can be found on page 125. Readers will find the name of the book and other relevant details of works cited in the source list, with the corresponding reference to this quote in the text:
   • Kingsolver, Ronald. Give Me a Moment. New York: Random House, 1932. Print.
5. Use appropriate citations for multiple editions, again it is required to include the page numbers, but it is also important to provide detailed information about the edition of the book you are citing from, as anyone reading your paper needs to know in which edition he / she can find the quote. (This almost always applies to classical and literary works)
   • The corresponding reference in the source list (for a book that has been published in multiple editions) should include the page number of the edition you are citing from, followed by a semicolon, volume, part, chapter, paragraph, or paragraph. Use the required abbreviations without capital letters:
   • Volume (vol.)
   • Book (bk.)
   • Part / part (pt)
   • Chapter / chapter (ch.)
   • Paragraph / section (sec.)
   • Paragraph / paragraph (par.)
6. Give credit to all authors. If you quote a passage from a book with multiple co-authors, it is required that you include all the names of these authors in your citation:
   • Berger, Mitry, and Neilson argue that stricter gun control laws should be passed (176). The authors state, "Tighter controls on gun ownership in the United States are in no way contrary to the Second Amendment rights to bear arms." (Berger, Mitry, and Neilson 176).
7. List all the books by the same author that are cited. If you use citations from 2 or more books written by the same author, you should mention both books in the text and in the source list:
   • Lipton states that daily writing is “critical to a writer's success” (Practice, Preactice, Practice! 5). However, Lipton also notes, "sometimes one has to run away to do anything but write for a week" (A Writer's Advice 7). These quoted passages inform the reader that quotes are being used from 2 different books by the same author.
8. Quoting work in multiple parts. If you quote from different volumes of a multi-volume work, you should include the number of the volume in your quote or paraphrase. That number is followed by a colon, a space, and the page number:
   • … As Tangier wrote in A History of the Universe (1: 87-101). This tells the reader that this passage can be found in Volume 1, somewhere between pages 87 and 101.

Method 4 of 4: Citing an e-book

1. Do not forget to correctly quote electronic books (e-book). In general, you use the same elements as with a citation of a printed book: Author, Date and Title. However, e-books often do not have page numbering, so it is not mandatory to mention this with e-books. In addition to the standard reference, eBook citation should include the URL or DOI:
   • Anderson, R. (2010). The Love of Money [Kindle]. Retrieved from http: //www.xxxx. Please refer to the latest edition of the style guide you are using for the most up-to-date information on citing electronic sources. This type of citation still undergoes multiple changes with all styles.

Tips

• Be guided by your common sense. There is no need to create documentation for commonly used phrases, or well-known quotes that have been in circulation for so long that they have become public domain. In other words, don't waste your time trying to find the original source of a quote like "A forewarned man ..."
• The place of residence of the publisher should be listed including the state (USA) or province abbreviation (do not use periods). For example, write California as CA and Florida as FL.
• Always use “pp” for the page numbers; do not write "page xx."
• If the citation style guidelines to use indicate that you are only citing the author's last name, but you are citing from a book with two authors who both share the same last name, add the first initial of each author to the citation.

Warnings

• Always follow the latest edition of the style guide used.
• Do not confuse APA style with AP. AP refers to the Associated Press and is the writing style used by journalists.