Citation Styles and In-Text References

Acknowledging sources in practice means using a citation system consistently. There are several established styles, and the Extended Essay allows you to choose one, provided you apply it correctly throughout. This lesson explains what citation styles are, how in-text citation works, and how to reference the range of sources an essay draws on.

What a citation style is

A citation style is a standardized set of conventions for showing where information came from. Well-known styles include author-date systems such as APA and Harvard, the author-page system of MLA, and note-based systems such as Chicago footnotes. Each specifies how to format an in-text reference and a full entry in the bibliography, and how to arrange details like author, title, and date. The differences between styles are mos