EDC 2006 - Jill Urban-Bollis - Multicultural Education

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Use the helpful exercises below to generate search terms for your research.

MLA (Modern Language Association) is the most common style for English, literature, and the fine arts. In these language-focused disciplines, readers are concerned with who said the information and where the exact language can be found, so MLA asks for full names of authors and page numbers of the cited information. 
However, articles in these fields are considered useful for a long time after they are written, so MLA does not require dates when referring to a source in a sentence or citation. An article of literary criticism, for example, may still be considered the authoritative source fifty years after its publication.

Source: IVCC Stylebook

More information: IVCC Stylesite

APA (American Psychological Association) is the most common style for the social sciences and health professions.  In these disciplines, research is considered objective, so authors are identified by last name and first initials only. Information is also evaluated on its currency, so dates are included in in-text citations. Readers want to know if the writer is using the most up-to-date research.

Source:  IVCC Stylebook

More information: IVCC Stylesite

Chicago (The Chicago Manual of Style) is the most common style for many disciplines in the humanities, most notably, history. In these disciplines, readers are concerned with who said the information and where the exact language can be found, so Chicago asks for names of authors and page numbers of the cited information at the minimum. 
A notable feature of this style is the use of footnotes rather than parenthetical citations

Source: IVCC Stylebook

More information: IVCC Stylesite