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Obscure Citation Requirements

Have you ever been stumped when a writer asks how to cite a source you’ve never even considered citing in your own papers? Check out this list of unusual formatting requirements for APA and MLA style.

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APA

Unpublished works

  • Occasionally, a writer will need to cite an unpublished manuscript. APA offers three sub-categories for unpublished works: Unpublished manuscript, manuscript in preparation, and manuscript submitted for publication.
  • Unpublished manuscript
    • Barkley, S., Chen, M., & McDonald, P. (2018). The effects of sodium on children’s health [Unpublished manuscript]. Department of Biology, University of Cincinnati.
  • Manuscript in preparation
    • Glass, A. (2019). How avocados changed America[Manuscript in preparation]. Department of Sociology, Michigan State University.
  • Manuscript submitted for publication
    • Jones, R. (2019). Walt Whitman and the American Dream[Manuscript submitted for publication]. Department of English, University of Mississippi.

Media

  • Film (In English)
    • Director Last Name, First Initial of First Name. (Director). (Date of publication). Title of motion picture [Film]. Production company.
  • Film (In another language)
    • Director, D. D. (Director). (Date of publication). Title of motion picture in original language [Translated title] [Film]. Production company.
  • Art in a museum or on a museum website
    • Artist Last Name, First Initial of First Name. (Year of release). Title of artwork [include medium here]. Name of museum, City, State, Country. URL of museum
  • Tweet
    • Lastname, F. M. or Name of Group [@username]. (Year, Month Date). Content of the post up to the first 20 words[Tweet]. Site Name. URL
  • Podcast episode
    • Host, A. A. (Host). (Year, Month Date). Title of episode (No. if provided) [Audio podcast episode]. In Name of podcast. Publisher. URL

MLA

  • Republished book (the original publication date comes first)
    • Erdrich, Louise. Love Medicine. 1984. Perennial-Harper, 1993.
  • Introduction/Preface/Forward
    • Farrell, Thomas B. Introduction. Norms of Rhetorical Culture, by Farrell, Yale UP, 1993, pp. 1-13.
  • Book published before 1900
    • Thoreau, Henry David. Excursions. Boston, 1863.
  • Dissertations or Master’s Theses
    • Bishop, Karen Lynn. Documenting Institutional Identity: Strategic Writing in the IUPUI Comprehensive Campaign. 2002. Purdue University, PhD dissertation.
  • Editorial
    • “Of Mines and Men.” Editorial. Wall Street Journal, eastern edition, 24 Oct. 2003, p. A14.

All of these examples and more can be found on Purdue OWL’s writing lab website.