Pols 339 Legislative Politics

Citation Guidelines

You need to cite the sources for your State and District Profiles and Legislator Profiles.  The format for citation is, like the Profiles themselves, flexible.  You may use abbreviated references to your sources and include them either at the end of your profile or incorporate them into your text when appropriate.

The preferred method for citing sources in the text of your Comparative Legislative Analysis paper is parenthetical citation.  This form of citation is designed to provide immediate source information without interrupting the flow of the paper.  The text citations refer the reader to the complete source information, included on a separate reference, or works cited, page with an alphabetical listing by author.

The key to citing sources--whether they be books, articles, or web sites--is to be consistent and complete, so that the reader can relocate the source if necessary.  There are several different documentation styles and any are appropriate for this paper.  You should use the one with which you are most familiar. 

The Writing Center at UW-Madison provides helpful descriptions of the APSA, APA, Chicago/Turabian, and MLA documentation styles, including guidelines for reference to electronic sources.  MLA and APA have their own web sites describing their formats for citing material from electronic sources.

The Writing Center website also contains a wealth of useful information for students embarking on a research paper project.   Topics include tips on completing a research paper, developing appropriate thesis statements, quoting and paraphrasing from research sources, and using proper grammar and style for the research paper.

Professor Rodd Freitag Schneider 200E Phone: (715) 836-5044 Fax: (715) 836-2944 Updated: January 14, 2003