Research Guides: Gemstone: Citations, Writing, and Organization

Citation Guide

Gemstone Students may use different citation styles, depending on their chosen topic. Below is information to help you with citations for common citation styles.

APA Style Guide - Purdue OWL
APA is distinguishable because it includes author and date in the in-text citations. APA is typically used by the sciences.
Chicago Style Guide - Purdue OWL
Chicago is easily differentiated from other citation styles by its use of footnotes. Chicago is typically used in the humanities fields (literature, history, etc.).
MLA Style Guide - Purdue OWL
MLA Style is commonly used in courses such as ENGL 101. It is frequently used in the humanities.

Popular Citation Managers

Citation Management Tools
This guide will help you get started with managing the information you find online, organizing your citations and writing your research paper.
Mendeley
Mendeley is a helpful and intuitive citation management software that allows you to keep track of your research easily and all in one place. Mendeley allows you to read and annotate PDF files, take notes, share and collaborate, and export references easily.
Mendeley How-To Videos
Zotero
Like Mendeley, Zotero is a powerful citation management tool that allows you to easily organize your citations and keep track of all your research. While Zotero is a little easier to use in many respects, it does not allow you to annotate PDFs the way that Mendeley does.
Zotero How-Tos

Writing

How to effectively integrate textual evidence into a paper
HIGHLY RECCOMENDED - Quick and helpful guide for figuring out how to paraphrase, summarize, quote, and write effectively as a scholar

The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker
Call Number: PE1421 .P56 2014
ISBN: 9780525427926
Publication Date: 2014-01-01
Avoid the awkwardness of academese (overwrought academic language that completely hides the meaning through complex and needlessly difficult sentences) with Pinker's entertaining and informative style manual.
How to Write a Thesis by Umberto Eco; Caterina Mongiat Farina; Geoff Farina; Francesco Erspamer
Call Number: LB2369 .E2813 2015 (Towson and UMBC have)
ISBN: 9780262328753
Publication Date: 2015-02-27
Not just for graduate students. Eco's helpful manual gives students insight into the process of researching, writing, revising, editing, and submitting large scale research projects. Some elements are outdated, but the ideas can be translated to today's research tools and methods
But Can I Start a Sentence with "But"? by University of Chicago, Press Staff (Contribution by)
Call Number: ebook
ISBN: 9780226370781
Publication Date: 2016-04-01