Using a citation generator or online citation checker

• A citation generator is an online tool that allows you to plug in information about a source and then provides a draft of a citation for you to revise.

  For example, Citation Machine helps you to build citations. Here's how to use it:

  * Gather all the information you can about your source. 

  * Go to http://www.citationmachine.net/

  * Choose a citation style. APA, MLA, and Chicago show up at the top, but you can also search for Turabian. 

  * Citation Machine will walk you through a series of steps, asking you to enter some information and choose the correct version of your source. Remember that many articles and books exist in multiple formats, so you want to make sure you are choosing the correct edition, medium, and publication date. 

  * Finally, Citation Machine will generate a citation that you can copy. 

  * Be warned: citation generators often give you a mostly correct citation, but they often get some things wrong: capitalization, name format, punctuation, and italics are sometimes wrong, so you still need to edit your source. Use one of our handouts to compare your draft citation against a model.