Cite a White Paper

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Traditionally, a white paper was any government report. Today, some corporations put out white papers as well. Government reports can be helpful in a research paper, as the government puts out reports on everything from nutrition to poverty levels to the levels of toxins in public water systems. They can be used in papers covering a wide variety of academic fields, from the sciences to the humanities. This article will show you how to correctly cite a white paper, in each of the major formatting styles - MLA, Chicago, APA and ASA. Just see Step 1 below to get started.

Steps

Citing in the Modern Language Association (MLA) Style

  1. If the publication has an author, use that first. Place the last name, a comma, and a first name. Follow the name with a period.
    • “Gregory, Bob.”
    • If the publication does not have an author, use the name of the national government first. Otherwise, place it after the name: “Gregory, Bob. United States.”
  2. Next, place the agency responsible for the publication after the country. If you are doing a white paper for a corporation, you can begin with the corporation’s name:
    • “Gregory, Bob. United States. Center for Happy People.”
  3. Add the name of the document in italics, followed by a period. MLA uses title-case capitalization for titles, meaning you capitalize all important words.
    • “Gregory, Bob. United States. Center for Happy People. Why Chocolate Is the Best Antidepressant.”
    • If the document was the result of a hearing or a particular congressional session, you can include that afterwards, in this form: “109th Cong., 1st sess.”
  4. Add the place of publication, followed by a colon, and the printer. Most government documents are printed by the Government Printing Office, abbreviated GPO.
    • “Gregory, Bob. United States. Center for Happy People. Why Chocolate Is the Best Antidepressant. Washington, D.C.: GPO,”
    • Notice a comma comes after “GPO.”
  5. Place the date of publication next. The publications date should be followed by a period and the medium of publication:
    • “Gregory, Bob. United States. Center for Happy People. Why Chocolate Is the Best Antidepressant. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 2008. Print.”
  6. Use a similar format for corporations.
    • “Willow, Lesta. Green Foods. Chocolate for Life: A Report on the Health Benefits of Chocolate. Eugene, Oregon: Redbook Printers, 2007. Print.”
    • In this instance, "Green Foods" is the company.
  7. For the in-text citation, use the author’s last name and a page number in parenthesis at the end of the sentence:
    • “Chocolate is tasty (Gregory 24).”
    • If it doesn’t have a name, use the the corporation, committee, or agency: “Chocolate is tasty (Center for Happy People 24).”

Citing in Chicago Style

  1. Begin with the author’s last name, a comma, and the author’s first name:
    • “Gregory, Bob.”
    • If the paper doesn’t have an author, go to the next step.
  2. Add the government issuing the report after the period. Follow this with a period and the department or agency:
    • “Gregory, Bob. United States Government. Center for Happy People.”
    • If it is associated with a specific branch, you can place that in between the government and the agency.
  3. Next, place the title of the paper in italics:
    • “Gregory, Bob. United States Government. Center for Happy People. Why Chocolate Is the Best Antidepressant.”
  4. Add the city of publication, a colon, and the printing office.
    • “Gregory, Bob. United States Government. Center for Happy People. Why Chocolate Is the Best Antidepressant. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office”
  5. Use a comma, and then the year of printing.
    • “Gregory, Bob. United States Government. Center for Happy People. Why Chocolate Is the Best Antidepressant. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 2008.”
  6. Use a similar format for a corporation.
    • “Willow, Lesta. Green Foods. Chocolate for Life: A Report on the Health Benefits of Chocolate. Eugene, Oregon: Redbook Printers, 2007.”
  7. For an in-text citation, click at the end of the sentence you want to cite, and insert a footnote using your document editing software. That will create a superscript number corresponding to a number at the bottom of the page. The software will automatically number your footnotes for you. Click in the footnote, and add it in. It should look like this one:
    • “Bob Gregory, United States, Center for Happy People, Why Chocolate Is the Best Antidepressant (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 2008), 22.”
  8. Pay attention to the differences between in-text and reference page citations. Notice you are changing some of the periods for commas and including the publishing information in quotations. Also note that the author’s name is reversed, with the first name first. Add the page number to the end. The other citation would look like this:
    • “Lesta Willow, Green Foods, Chocolate for Life: A Report on the Health Benefits of Chocolate (Eugene, Oregon: Redbook Printers, 2007) 26-27.”

Citing in American Psychological Association (APA) Style

  1. Once again, begin with the author’s name. If it doesn’t have an author, proceed to the next step.
    • “Gregory, B.”
    • In this case, you only use the author’s first initial.
  2. Next, include the agency:
    • “Gregory, B. Center for Happy People.”
  3. Place the date in parenthesis.
    • “Gregory, B. Center for Happy People. (2008).”
  4. Use the name of the paper next. Put the title in sentence case, meaning only the first word is capitalized:
    • “Gregory, B. Center for Happy People. (2008). Why chocolate is the best antidepressant
  5. Add the publication number in parenthesis if it has one:.
    • “Gregory, B. Center for Happy People. (2008). Why chocolate is the best antidepressant (DHHS Publication No. ADM 4343-13434).”
  6. Add the city, a colon, and the printing office. Note that APA uses “DC” instead of “D.C.” and that it uses “U.S. Government Printing Office” not just “Government Printing Office.
    • “Gregory, B. Center for Happy People. (2008). Why chocolate is the best antidepressant (DHHS Publication No. ADM 4343-13434). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.”
  7. For a corporation, use a similar format.
    • “Willow, L. Green Foods. (2007). Chocolate for life: a report on the health benefits of chocolate. Eugene, Oregon: Redbook Printers.”
  8. For an in-text citation, use the author’s name (if it has one) or the agency, plus the date and page number in parenthesis.
    • “Chocolate is the best (Willow, 2007, p. 35).” Notice they are separated by commas.
    • You can also use the name at the beginning of the sentence without parenthesis, followed by a date in parenthesis:
    • “According to the Center for Happy People (2008), chocolate is awesome (p. 46).” The page number always comes at the end of the sentence.

Citing in American Sociological Association (ASA) Style

  1. Begin with the author if the paper has one. Otherwise, move on to the agency.
    • “Gregory, Bob. Center for Happy People.”
  2. Place the date after the agency:
    • “Gregory, Bob. Center for Happy People. 2008.”
  3. Next, add the name of the document. Use title-case capitalization, meaning you capitalize each important word.
    • “Gregory, Bob. Center for Happy People. 2008. Why Chocolate Is the Best Antidepressant.”
  4. Next, add the city of publication, followed by a colon.
    • “Gregory, Bob. Center for Happy People. 2008. Why Chocolate Is the Best Antidepressant. Washington, DC:”
  5. Finally, add the printing office. Note that ASA also uses “U.S. Government Printing Office.”
    • “Gregory, Bob. Center for Happy People. 2008. Why Chocolate Is the Best Antidepressant. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.”
  6. For a corporation, keep a similar format:
    • “Willow, Lesta. Green Foods. 2007. Chocolate for Life: A Report on the Health Benefits of Chocolate. Eugene, Oregon: Redbook Printers.”
  7. Learn how to do an in-text citation.
    • For an in-text citation, use the author’s last name or agency and the date of publication, followed by a colon and the page number at the end of the sentence. “Chocolate is awesome (Gregory 2008:22).”
    • At the beginning of the sentence, just place the date and page number in parenthesis: “According to Willow (2007:34), chocolate is tasty.”

Tips

  • These are the most common citation formats, which should get you through most situations. If you want to know more, you can check out Purdue’s Online Writing Lab for more information or consult the manuals for each style: The Chicago Manual of Style, The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, or American Sociological Association (ASA) Style Guide.

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