Abdullah Ramadan

Abdulhameed Aljahdali

Sep.23.2013

Citation Styles

A citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source (not always the original source). More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression (e.g.< Newell84 >) embedded in the body of an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the bibliographic references section of the work for the purpose of acknowledging the relevance of the works of others to the topic of discussion at the spot where the citation appears”. In all languages there are different types of writing styles. In addition, English has many citation styles such as MLA, APA, AMA, Turabian, and Chicago style. First of all, MLA style and that mostly used for literature, arts, and humanities; moreover, that what most universities use in the U.S. Secondly, the APA that style is usually used for psychology, education, and other social sciences. Then, we have AMA style and sometimes this type of style used for medicine, health, and biological sciences. After that, turabian style is rarely used in the universities and usually used by college students. Finally, Chicago style that style considers as the easiest citation style, which is used with all subjects in the "real world" by books, magazines, newspapers, and other non-scholarly publications.

In sum, citation styles are really important in English language and most be used carefully and wisely. Every writer has to learn about citation and know how to use it correctly because it’s the most of the important parts in writing especially if you are taking a sentence from a book, newspaper, or the internet.