Citation Maker Instructions

1. Click on the resource you want to cite from the Source Type column on the right (or from the drop-down menu if using a mobile device). If a template does not appear, you may need to allow pop-ups from your browser.

2. Complete the template form with information from your source. Only fill in the boxes that apply, using information that is available to you. For Internet sources, you may need to look on the site's homepage or main page for necessary information. Check your spelling and capitalization.

3. Not all source types are included in Citation Maker. If necessary, adapt an existing source type. Check the MLA Handbook or Publication Manual of the APA for examples of how to cite sources not covered in Citation Maker.

4. When you are done filling out the form, click on "Create Citation Below." Your citation will appear below the template in the dotted box.

5. Continue this process for each of your sources. You may enter multiple citations without losing the previous ones.

6. You have three options to save your citations:

  • Use "Save as Word or Pages Doc" to open Microsoft Word or Apple Pages and save your citations as a word processing document.
  • Use "Save as Google Doc" to save your citations as a Google document in your Google Drive account.
  • Copy the citations that appear in the dotted box and paste them into any document. This option will not retain hanging indents. See the fourth bullet in item 7 below.

7. After you save your citations, correct these things, if necessary:

  • Check your spelling, especially the names of people.
  • Capitalize titles as follows:
    • MLA
      Capitalize all words in any title with the exception of articles and prepositions like a, the, at, in, to, etc. Capitalize the first word after a colon or dash regardless of what it is. Each template links to a page with more guidelines called How to Capitalize and Punctuate Titles.
    • APA
      • Journal titles: Capitalize all words in the title with the exception of articles and prepositions like a, the, at, in, to, etc. Capitalize the first word after a colon or dash regardless of what it is.
      • Book, chapter, article, and website titles: Capitalize only the first letter of the first word of a title and subtitle, the first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and proper nouns. Do not capitalize the first letter of the second word in a hyphenated compound word.
  • Double space the list, both between citations and within them.
  • When a citation has more than one line, use a hanging indent. To do this, indent the second line of a citation, and every line thereafter, to the right five spaces.
  • Alphabetize the entire list by the first word of each citation. This may be the author’s last name or the first word in a title.
  • If a citation begins with quotation marks, you may need to manually move that citation to its proper alphabetical spot.