In writing, unless everything, absolutely everything, is of original matter which we came up ourselves, we always need to acknowledge the reference materials that were used to complete work. Not to do so is disrespectful to the author of the source. To some extent, it may even be considered as a violation of intellectual property rights. Hence, it is better to acknowledge other people's work.

So how do we go about it? It's not as simple as simply noting the title of the book and the author. Citations have to be very detailed, sometimes, down to the page and even the paragraph. That's how detailed it can be. The standard citation format used nowadays for scholarly written work is based on the MLA Style bibliography.

The Modern Language Association of America (MLA) is responsible for the publication of the MLA Style Manual back in 1985. The manual is now on its third edition which was published in 2008. The Manual is considered a scholarly book that provides students an academic style of writing, which includes the MLA Style bibliography. The Manual is recognized in Canada and the United States, as well as other countries. Hence, it was easy for the instructions found in the Manual to be considered as somewhat a universal standard among learning institutions.

The Manual covers a lot of topics is technical and scholarly writing. However, focusing on the MLA Style bibliography, we must first determine what information must be included in these citations. Here are the most common ones:

• Author
• Title and Subtitle
• Place of Publication (Only for Book References)
• Publisher (Only for Book References)
• Publication Date
• Page Number

Having this information, we don't simply type them all in one line, in our headers and footers. There are very specific ways in how they are to be typed. To get the complete guidelines and examples, get a copy of the MLA Style Manual today.