You will likely be asked to use a variety of citation and referencing styles throughout your career at Michigan Tech and beyond.
Click for the Reference Style You're Using:
Below are basic guidelines for each style. Regarding paper formatting, headings, etc., ask your faculty if there is a template or guideline you should use for their particular course. There are citation generators and research tools available for Tech students, such as Zotero and Endnote. Zotero has IEEE style while Endnote does not. These programs can make mistakes, but are helpful to organize sources and generate a first draft of references. The library has support resources on using these tools. And you can always make an appointment with us!
Where should you find the information you need for references and citations?
You can do so easily with a little digging and some library tools! Check out our videos on how to use the library database's citation tool and the source itself.
Finding Reference and Citation Information
Finding Reference and Citation Information Part 2
American Chemical Society (ACS) Style:
ACS Paper Formatting: The title should be concise and use precise terms, avoid jargon, symbols, formulas, and abbreviations. It should not begin with “the”. Traditional papers in ACS should have these sections: abstraction, introduction, experimental details or theoretical basis, results, discussion, conclusions. Your coursework may not require all of these. Papers should generally have an abstract of 80-100 words and cover the research topic, experimental process, key findings, major conclusions.
In-Text Citations:
There are three citation methods permitted for ACS. Select one and be consistent throughout your paper.
- Numerical references with superscript numbers: Helakoski4
- Numerical references with italicized numbers in parentheses: Helakoski (4)
- Author-date references. For these, year is always in parentheses and author name can be in parentheses or used narratively in the sentence.
Example: Writing is a chemical process (Helakoski, 2025) or According to Helakoski (2025) writing is a chemical process.
Multiple authors: For two authors in the author-date style, join author names with “and”. For three or more authors, use the first name and et al.
Multiple References: To refer to more than one source at once in text:
For multiple authors in numerical styles, list the authors numerals separated by a comma, or, if in order, by a dash. Example: Writing is fun (1, 4)
For multiple authors in author-date style, list authors separated by a semi-colon. Example: (Helakoski, 2025; Seigel, 2020)
References:
Your reference list should start on a new page at the end of your document. Each reference entry should use a hanging indent—the first line is left justified and the following lines in that entry are indented. Papers using numerical citations should list references in numerical order. Author-date papers should use the first author’s last name to alphabetize the references.
AP style:
Rather than focusing on giving credit to outside sources in a uniform way, AP style guidelines mainly deal with how to describe certain common components of news articles like dates, age, and abbreviations. Do still give credit to sources in text, but generally this will involve the author’s name, year, any relevant context about the source (like expertise in a field, status as an interviewee, etc.), and potentially the title of a document/book.
American Psychological Association (APA):
Paper and Abstract Formatting:
Use our easy template for your title page and abstract (if required) in APA style. The template includes these links on abstracts--how to format them as well as how to write them.
In-text citations:
For in-text citations for APA style, cite the author by last name followed by the
year. Both author and year can be in parentheses, or you can have the author name
as part of the sentence followed by the year in parentheses. For sources with two
authors, list (Author & Author, year). For sources with more than two authors, list
the first author followed by et al. (Author et al., year).
Examples:
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Helakoski (2022) found that writing centers boost student confidence.
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Writing centers boost student confidence (Helakoski, 2022).
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Writing centers can support students in many ways (Helakoski & Seigel, 2023).
- According to Grimm et al. (2023), writing centers can act as learning communities for students.
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References:
Your reference list should be double spaced with hanging indents for each reference entry.
Introduction to APA Referencing Module
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Style (IEEE):
In-text citations:
For IEEE, use brackets and a numeral to cite a source. You will cite in order of sources
that appear in your paper, and this will correspond in the reference list. Once you
cite a source, it is associated with that numeral for the rest of your paper. Citations
should go within the sentence (before the period or other punctuation). You may also
include author names in-text, but the bracket and numeral is all that is required.
Examples:
- Writing centers boost student confidence [1].
- Helakoski [1] noted that writing centers boost student confidence.
If you are citing more than one source, place a comma between bracketed numerals.
If you are citing several sources that are in numerical order, you may place a dash
between these.
Examples:
- Writing centers boost student confidence [1], [2].
- Writing centers can support students in many ways [1]-[4].
References:
References should be a separate page at the end of your paper with References at the top of the page. Single space entries with double space between each entry. Each reference number should be flush left, then have spaces between that and the beginning of your reference.
Would you like to try and test your skills?
IEEE Citation Module
Modern Language Association (MLA) Style:
Paper Formatting:
Your paper should have 1 inch margins and be double spaced. You may be asked to create a title page or just start with your title on the first page of your document. We have a template you can download with both options.
In-text citations:
MLA in-text citations should include the author’s last name and page number where the source material appears. These citations can appear narratively or in parentheses. The page number should always appear directly after the quotation in either case. For webpage or online sources, no page number should be included, but the author or first item in the reference should be included for reader clarity.
Examples:
- Writing centers “boost student confidence” (Helakoski, 37).
- As Helakoski noted, writing centers “boost student confidence” (37).
- As noted in “Why Writing Centers are Amazing”, they can “boost student confidence”. → note this last example as a web article with no author.
References:
In MLA, the header on your page of references should be Works Cited (centered). All references should be double spaced without extra space between entries and apply the hanging indent.