Quick Tips
- Quick Tips for ASA StyleA two-page guide from the ASA, covering the basics of ASA style.
More ASA Help
Click the logo below to visit the Purdue Online Writing Lab's guide to ASA Style. Find more detailed information about paper formatting and citing different types of sources.
Plagiarism Resources
- Best Practices to Avoid Plagiarism (Purdue OWL)There are few intellectual offenses more serious than plagiarism in academic and professional contexts. This resource offers advice on how to avoid plagiarism in your work.
- Plagiarism.orgShort overview of plagiarism, including how and when you must cite sources,"Ask the Expert" space for Q&A, and other plagiarism resources including webcasts, tools, facts and stats, student materials, and news.
Organize Your Research
- Refworks (formerly Flow) This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
Keep track of your research by saving all of your articles in one place and generate citations in APA, MLA, or Chicago style. Create an account with your Helena College email address to get started.
- ZoteroA free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources.
Citation Basics
The purpose of following a specific style for your citations is to help the reader identify and find your outside sources easily. Each part of the citation contains important information about the source, and the formatting provides a standard way to quickly communicate that information to the reader.
ASA (American Sociological Association) style is recommended for students and researchers writing in the field of sociology.
For each outside source included in a paper, there should be a brief citation in the paper, which corresponds to a complete citation in the list of references at the bottom of the paper.
In-Text Citations
Every time you quote, paraphrase, or summarize information from an outside source, you must provide an in-text citation. It points your reader to the source's full citation in your list of references at the end of your paper.
For any type of resource (article, book, website, etc), a basic in-text citation includes the author's name and the publication year (example: Smith 2013).
When directly quoting a source or paraphrasing a specific passage, you also include a page number (example: Smith 2013:26).
- You can put the name and year in parenthesis at the end of the information:
Unabomber Ted Kaczynski represents a dichotomy between self-reliance and freedom (Rousseau 2014).
- Or you can use the author's name in the text, also called a signal phrase:
Rousseau (2015) explained how Ted Kaczynski represents a common dichotomy in sociology.
Remember, the name you use in your in-text citation should match the name you use in your full citation in the list of references!
For one author, include the author's last name, and year of publication.
For a direct quote or information from a specific part of a source, place a colon immediately after the year, followed by the page number, with no spaces.
If the citation falls at the end of the sentence, put the period after the closing parenthesis.
"Freedom only has meaning when one becomes conscious of the idea of freedom" (Rousseau 2014:11).
Rousseau (2014:11) points out that a person must understand the idea of freedom to truly appreciate it.
Remember, the name you use in your in-text citation should match the name you use in your full citation in the list of references!
For a work that has two authors, include both of the authors' last names, with the word "and" between them, followed by the year of publication.
For a direct quote or information from a specific page of a source, place a colon immediately after the year, followed by the page number, with no spaces.
If the citation falls at the end of the sentence, put the period after the closing parenthesis.
"Family functioning among single-biological-mother households does not respond to increasing levels of neighborhood cohesion in the same way that it does for married and cohabiting two-biological-parent households" (Freistadt and Strohschein 2013:954).
Freistadt and Strohschein (2013:954) found that families with single mothers benefited less from supportive neighbors than traditional two-parent families.
Remember, the name you use in your in-text citation should match the name you use in your full citation in the list of references!
For a work with three authors, include all three authors the first time the work is cited. If you cite the work again, you can include only the first author's last name, followed by the phrase "et al.", then include the year of publication.
For a direct quote or information from a specific page of a source, place a colon immediately after the year, followed by the page number, with no spaces.
If the citation falls at the end of the sentence, put the period after the closing parenthesis.
"While wage differences naturally occur in a capitalistic system, massive differences provoke social unrest and the rise of demigods advocating collectivist solutions" (Muczyk, Nance, and Coccari 2009:3).
Muczyk et al. (2009:14) believe that education is not the only way to decrease wage disparity.
Remember, the name you use in your in-text citation should match the name you use in your full citation in the list of references!
For a work with more than three authors, include only the first author's last name, followed by the phrase "et al.", then include the year of publication.
For a direct quote or information from a specific page of a source, place a colon immediately after the year, followed by the page number, with no spaces.
If the citation falls at the end of the sentence, put the period after the closing parenthesis.
"Employment and work demands appear to contribute to parents’ decreased time to attend to their own nutrition as well as that of their families" (Bauer et al. 2012:503).
Bauer et al. (2012:503) found that parents' work schedules can have a negative impact on the entire family's nutrition.
Remember, the name you use in your in-text citation should match the name you use in your full citation in the list of references!
Use the organization responsible for the content as the author if no individual can be identified.
For a direct quote or information from a specific page of a source, place a colon immediately after the year, followed by the page number, with no spaces.
If the citation falls at the end of the sentence, put the period after the closing parenthesis.
According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (2017), acupuncture may be useful in treating symptoms related to MS, such as pain and numbness.
Acupuncture may be effective in treating symptoms related to MS, such as pain and numbness (National Multiple Sclerosis Society 2017).
References
The list of references is a list of all of the resources you used in your research paper or assignment, organized alphabetically by author.
The list is double-spaced with a hanging indent, meaning that, for a citation on more than one line, each line after the first is indented 1/4" from the left margin. Find the paragraph settings, choose the indentation style of hanging, and set it to 1/4". In Word, you'll click the little icon in the lower right corner of the "Paragraph" section of the main toolbar.
The first part of your in-text citation (almost always the author) should match the first part of your full citation in the list of references.
There are guidelines for how to cite different numbers and types of authors, and how to cite different formats of information (article, book, website, etc.). You will have to combine these guidelines for each citation.
One Author
Use the author's last name, followed by first name and middle initials, if present.
Rousseau, Nathan.
Two or More Authors
List all authors. The first author is listed last name, first name, but all other authors are listed in normal order. Separate each with a comma, and put "and" before the last author.
Bauer, Katherine W., Mary O. Hearst, Kamisha Escoto, Jerica M. Berge, and Dianne Neumark-Sztainer.
Organization as Author
Use the organization responsible for the content as the author if no individual can be identified.
American Sociological Society.
The basic citation for an article from a database is shown below, along with an example. Refer to the guides we've shared for any different situation, such as a different number of authors. Pay attention to punctuation and capitalization.
Author Last, First M. Year. Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher.
Rousseau, Nathan. 2014. Society Explained. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Click the image to view the record for the book in the library's OneSearch. Click Details to find publication information in the record.
Citing a web page (or a short work from a website) can be tricky. Look carefully for the name of an author, or use the organization as the author if you cannot find a name. The organization is usually the same for the publisher, but sometimes there is a larger organization. To find the place of publication, you may need to find the "About Us" or "Contact Us" link to find where the company is located.
Author. Year. "Title of Web Page." Place of Publication: Publisher. Retrieved Month Day, Year (Article URL).
Pew Research Center. 2015. "Raising Kids and Running a Household: How Working Parents Share the Load." Washington, DC: Pew Research Center. Retrieved November 11, 2016 (http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/11/04/raising-kids-and-running-a-household-how-working-parents-share-the-load).
Click the image to view the website about working parents from Pew Research Center.
Below is a video describing how you can cite a film or documentary. Although it is not mentioned in this video, be sure to include a year of publication.
The basic citation for an article from a database is shown below. Refer to the guides we've shared for any different situation, such as a different number of authors. You can usually find all of the information you need on the article itself, or on the record for the article, which is the web page that describes the article and links to the PDF file of it.
Last, First M., and First M. Last. Year. "Article Title." Journal Title. Volume(Issue): Pages. doi: .
Bauer, Katherine W., Mary O. Hearst, Kamisha Escoto, Jerica M. Berge, and Diane Neumark-Sztainer. 2012. "Parental Employment and Work-Family Stress: Associations with Family Food Environments." Social Science & Medicine 75(3): 496-504. doi:10.1016/j.soscimed.2012.3.026.
Click the image to view the journal article. If you are off campus, you will be asked to log in with your NetID.
Format Your Paper
Choose a standard font that is easy to read, such as Times New Roman.
All text should be 12-point font and double-spaced.
Margins should be 1 1/4" on all sides, unless otherwise specified by your instructor.
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Start your references on a new page. Center the title, "References," in all caps. List all of the works you have cited in the paper. Double-space the list. Each reference has a hanging indent, which means the first line is flush with the margin, but any lines after are indented about 3 spaces. List the references in alphabetical order by the author's last name, or the name of the organization, whichever is the first part of the citation. To create the hanging indent, highlight your list, then enter your paragraph settings, choose "hanging indent" and set it to 0.15".
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