Writing and Style Guides

Helpful Style Guides

• The Southern Seminary Style Manual
• American University Library Citation Style Guide
• Chicago Manual of Style Chicago Style Guide

Word Processors for Academic Writing

• Nota Bene is an integrated word processor with bibliographic citation management (Ibidem) and the ability to create and search a custom database (Orbis). The word processor automatically formats according to MLA, APA, Chicago (Turabian).
• ScholarWord is a Microsoft Word compatible freeware program that automatically formats MLA, APA, and Chicago/Turabian style citations , inserts these formatted citations into your paper, and provides explanations and examples for citing sources in your text. It then saves your citations so you can easily insert or change the references in the future.

Online Bibliographic Citation Creators and Managers

• KnightCite
• Zotero captures citation information you want from a web page automatically, without typing or cutting and pasting on your part, and saves this information directly into the correct fields (e.g., author, title, etc.) of your Zotero library; lets you store—beyond citations—PDFs, files, images, links, and whole web pages; allows you to easily take notes on the research materials you capture; makes it easy to organize your research materials in multiple ways, such as folders, saved searches (smart folders), and tags; offers fast, as-you-type search through your materials so that you can quickly find that source that you only vaguely remember; lets you export formatted citations to your paper, article, book, or website; has an easy-to-use, modern interface that simplifies all of your research tasks, with "where has that been?" features such as autosaving your notes as you type; runs right in your web browser and is a platform for new forms of digital research that can be extended with other web tools and services.
• The Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin - Madison offers help and examples for citing references in academic writing.
• WebCite archives web pages for bibliographic citation.
• BiblioExpress is a simple reference manager for researchers. It is the freeware edition of the company's flagship product - Biblioscape. BiblioExpress can be used to collect literature references of different types, to explore bibliographic resources on the Internet, as well as to serve as a free viewer of bibliographic data. BiblioExpress can format records in several popular styles, including ACS, APA, and MLA. BiblioExpress is designed to be small and efficient. You can run BiblioExpress from a floppy disk.
• A helpful article summarizing and comparing the various primary bibliographic citation management tools.
• cb2Bib is a tool for rapidly extracting unformatted, or unstandardized biblographic references from email alerts, journal Web pages, and PDF files.
• Products related to the ShaRef project. Provides a list of projects and products which in one way or the other are related to the ShaRef project. This means this page lists projects and products which in one way or the other provide bibliographic management features to end users.
• Source Aid builds your reference list online for free in the major styles.
• MLA Auto-Generator
• Bibus is an open source bibliographic and reference management software that works with OpenOffice.
• OttoBib creates bibliographies from ISBN numbers. Turabian compatible.
• JabRef is an open-source client for bibliographic citation management.
• BibDesk is a bibliographic citation manager for Mac users.
• Citation Machine
• EasyBib

Plagiarism

• For help determining copyright and fair use, see the library's Fair Use Checklist
• University websites that discuss avoidance and detection of plagiarism (from Eastern Michigan University):
• Guide to Plagiarism and Cyber-Plagiarism - The University of Alberta
• cheating Plagiarism and Other Questionable Practices - The University of Wisconsin
• Cyberplagiarism: Detection and Prevention - Pennsylvania State University
• Understanding  Plagiarism - Indiana University School of Education
• Acknowledging Sources with Plagiarism Examples - Princeton University
• Plagiarism Tutorial - San Jose State University Library
• Plagiarism Tutorial - Taylor University
• Plagiarism Tutorial - University of Memphis
• Synthesis: Using the Work of Others - University of Maine at Farmington
• Plagiarism: Its Nature and Consequences - Duke University
• Plagiarism - University of British Columbia
• Plagiarism: What it Is, How to Recognize and Avoid It - Indiana University at Bloomington
• Avoiding Plagiarism - Purdue University
• Plagiarism - University of Wisconsin - Platteville
• Preventing and Detecting Plagiarism - University of Texas - Austin

Other

• Research and Documentation Online offers a discipline-specific online research and documentation guide including finding and citing online resources.
• Google Page Translator translate entire web pages.
• Online Writing Lab at Purdue University offers a helpful writing guide addressing the composition and mechanics of writing as well as MLA and APA citation in academic writing.
• Turabian Guide offered by The University of Southern Mississippi Library. This is a quick reference for citation issues that may not be addressed in the Southern Style Manual.