How do you cite a book in an academic paper?

To cite a book in an academic paper, insert a parenthetical note after the quote or paraphrase from the book, and include the book in your Works Cited page. Follow the formatting directions that are specific to the style guide chosen by your professor, such as MLA, APA or Chicago/Turabian.

1. Determine whether the citation is from a quote or paraphrase

   Put quotation marks around any phrase longer than two words that you take from a book or other source. Leave the quotation marks around passages that contain information from the book but that you did not quote directly.

2. Use parenthetical documentation to cite your source

   At the end of the last sentence in the quote or paraphrase, put a "(" before the period. Insert this after the final quotation mark if you are citing a quotation. After the "(", write the author's last name, follow with a comma, and then write the page number in the book where the quotation or information appears, if you are using MLA format. Between the author's name and the comma, add the year of publication if you are using APA format. Close the parentheses after the page number, and then add a period to complete the sentence.

3. List the book in your Works Cited page

   Include the following information in your Works Cited page for each book you cite, punctuating as follows: author's last name, author's first name. Title of Book (in italics). City of publication: publisher, year of publication (if using MLA). Format the information for APA style papers as follows: author's last Name, author's first Initial. (Year of publication.) Title of book (in italics). City of Publication: publisher.