Style Guides

Citation style guides, such as APA, MLA, and Chicago, provide standardized rules for citing sources in academic writing, ensuring clarity and uniformity. These guides help you properly format in-text citations, footnotes, and bibliographies, making it easier for readers to locate original sources. Some of their most useful features include detailed examples of how to cite various types of sources—books, journal articles, websites, and more—as well as guidelines on how to handle complex citations, such as multiple authors or missing information. By following these guides, you ensure your work adheres to academic standards and avoids plagiarism.

Online Citation Tools

APA Style Help

APA Style Help is a great starting place for guidelines, instructions aids, and examples. It serves as an online companion to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition. APA Style Help also links to the APA Style Blog, which is run by a group of experts who work with APA Style every day and publish frequent posts about writing, publishing, and APA Style.

Chicago Manual of Style Online

A fully searchable online version of the 16th and 17th editions of the Chicago Manual of Style is available to current students and faculty.

AMA Manual of Style

In addition to the basics of grammar and citation, the American Medical Association Manual of Style leads writers through the maze of abbreviation, nomenclature, and quantitation. 11th Edition.

NLM Style Guide

The National Library of Medicine provides access to the 2nd edition of Citing Medicine.

Purdue OWL

The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) provides resources on in-text citation and bibliographies, as well as an impressive array of sample papers and slide presentations.

• APA Formatting and Style Guide
• MLA Formatting and Style Guide
• Chicago Formatting and Style Guide

Style Guides and Manuals

You can find these general and discipline-specific style manuals on our shelves. Click on the linked call number of each book to view its approximate location on a library map.

You can also use this SuperSearch link to get a list of all books–both print and electronic–that match the subject “style manuals.”

American Psychological Association. Publication manual of the American Psychological Association: the official guide to APA style. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2020.
BF76.7 P83 2020
Cowles Reference

—–. APA style guide to electronic references. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2007.
PN171 .F56 A63 2007
Cowles Stacks

The Chicago manual of style. 16^th ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2010.
Z253 .U69 2010 (also available online)
Cowles Reference

The Chicago manual of style. 15^th ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003.
Z253 .U69 2003
Law Library Stacks

The Chicago manual of style. 14^th ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1993.
Z253 .U69 1993
Law Library Stacks

The Chicago manual of style: for Authors, Editors, and Copywriters. 13^th ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1982.
Z253 .U69 1982
Law Library Stacks

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 2nd ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2009.
LB2369 .G53 2009
Cowles Reserves

MLA Style Guide Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. Joseph Gibaldi, ed. 3^rd ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2008.
PN147 .G444 2008
Cowles Reference and Law Reserve

MLA Style Guide Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. Joseph Gibaldi, ed. 2nd ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1998.
PN147 .G444 1998
Law Library Stacks

Discipline-Specific Guides

The ACS Style Guide: Effective Communication of Scientific Information. Anne M. Coghill, ed. 3rd ed. Washington, DC: American Chemical Society, 2006.
QD8.5 .A25 2006
Cowles Reference

AMA Manual of Style: a Guide for Authors and Editors. Cheryl Iverson, ed. 11th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.
R119 .A533 2020 (also available online)
Cowles Reference

Associated Press. The Associated Press Stylebook 2018 and Briefing on Media Law. Paula Froke, ed. (53rd ed.). New York, Basic Books, 2018.
PN4783 .A83 2018
Cowles Reserves

Knisely, Karin. A Student Handbook for Writing in Biology. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer, c2009.
QH304 .K59 2009
Cowles Stacks

The Oxford Style Manual. R. M. Ritter, ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
PE1421 .R58 2003
Cowles Reference

Reep, Diana C. The Educator’s Writing Handbook. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1999.
LB1033.5 .R44 1999
Cowles Stacks

Siegal, Allan M. and William G. Connolly. The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage. Rev. & expanded ed. New York: Times Books, 1999.
PN4783 .S57 1999
Cowles Stacks

Wilson, Kevin. AMA handbook of business writing: the ultimate guide to style, grammar, usage, punctuation, construction, and formatting. New York: American Management Association, 2010.
HF5726 .W55 2010
Cowles Stacks

Other Style Guides

Walker, Janice R. The Columbia Guide to Online Style. 2nd ed. New York: Columbia University Press, c2006. Available online.