Plagiarism and Citation Styles

Washington and Lee University Library

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Citation Styles

Unfortunately, there is no universally agreed-upon "style" for documenting the use of sources in research and writing -- no single method for formatting footnotes, bibliographies, endnotes, in-text citations, etc.

The W&L University Library provides help citing sources and using citation management tools (like Zotero). Three commonly used styles are The Chicago Manual of Style, the MLA [Modern Languages Association] Handbook, and the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Explore these resources below.