The citation style you decide to use throughout your paper will dictate the information you need to gather and how the information will be ordered, as well as the punctuation and formatting you will use for your in-text citations/footnotes/endnotes and reference list/bibliography/works cited.
Deciding what style you will use in your paper at the beginning of your research will help you know what information about the sources you need to collect.
Here are some steps to help you decide what style you want to use:
Once you have picked your citation style, be sure to use it consistently throughout your paper. You may want to consider using a citation management tool such as RefWorks or Zotero to help you collect, organize, and cite the sources.
This document is compiled from the following freely accessible online sources: CWPA, Indiana University and Montgomery College, North Carolina State University Libraries, & plagiarism.org