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Philosophy Guide APA Citations

The Learning Centers MLA Citations

Database Tips

Keywords are the main ideas of your topic.

Keep these tips in mind when creating your keywords.

"Quotation marks" keep words together when searching for phrases.
- Example: "death penalty," "genetic engineering"
AND and OR structure your search:
- AND narrows results (includes all terms)
- OR expands results (includes synonyms)
Truncation (asterisk = shift + 8) searches multiple word variations at once.
- Example: ethic* → ethics, ethical, ethically
Grow Your Keyword List with words you read in abstracts, article titles, and subject headings

Example Search:
("death penalty" OR "capital punishment") AND ethic* AND justice

Note: Always place OR terms in parenthesis

Keyword Examples

Start with basic searches, then try advanced versions if you need more specific results. Remember to search for arguments supporting both sides of your topic.

Death Penalty

Basic: "death penalty" AND ethics

Advanced: ("death penalty" OR "capital punishment") AND ethic*

Hate Speech Online

Basic: "hate speech" AND "content moderation"

Advanced: "hate speech" AND "free speech" AND "content moderation" AND "harm principle"

Physician-Assisted Suicide

Basic: "physician-assisted suicide" AND ethics

Advanced: ("physician-assisted suicide" OR euthanasia) AND ethic*

Factory Farming

Basic: "factory farming" AND "animal rights"

Advanced: ("factory farming" OR "industrial agriculture") AND "animal welfare"

CQ Researcher Video

CQ Researcher

Weekly CQ Researcher reports provide in-depth, unbiased coverage of today's issues in the news on health, social trends, criminal justice, international affairs, education, the environment, technology, and the economy.

Opposing Viewpoints Video

Opposing Viewpoints (Gale In Context)
A social issues database with articles, viewpoint essays, reference material, statistics, and more. Use Media Bias Fact Check to verify credibility of Viewpoint authors.

EBSCOhost Video

EBSCOhost : All Databases

Cross-search all EBSCO databases (50+); our largest collection of magazines, journals, ebooks, news sources, primary sources, and more, covering multi-disciplinary topics.

Citing Your Sources

MLA Citation Guide (9th Edition)

MLA Formatting Rules

Author Names: Last Name, First Name (e.g., Smith, Jane).
Title Formatting: Use Title Case (Capitalize Major Words).
Italics vs. Quotes: Italicize book and journal titles; use quotation marks for webpages and articles.
URLs: Include the full link but remove "https://".
In-Text Citations: (Author Last Name Page Number) → (Smith 45).
Works Cited Page: Double-space, indent second line of each entry.

More details: MLA Style Center.

APA Citation Guide (7th Edition)

APA Formatting Rules

Author Names: Last Name, First Initial. (e.g., Smith, J.).
Title Formatting: Use Sentence Case (Capitalize First Word & Proper Nouns).
Italics: Italicize book and journal titles
DOIs & URLs: Always include them. No "Retrieved from" needed.
In-Text Citations: (Author, Year) → (Smith, 2023). For quotes: (Smith, 2023, p. 45).
Reference Page: Double-space, indent second line of each entry.

More details: APA Style Guide.