Resources for Academic Communication
Saint Mary’s University: Departmental Style Guides
These style guides were prepared in partnership with Saint Mary's faculty and are tailored to meet the expectations of particular disciplines of study. Printed copies of these guides are in our office, Burke 115.
Writing Style Guides: AAA, APA, MLA, and Chicago
A style guide or style manual is a set of guidelines for how documents are to be written and designed. Several well-known style guides are commonly used by specific disciplines and journals.
Perhaps the most important function of an academic style guide is to support academic integrity; following guide standards appropriately will ensure that all sources are documented and credited consistently. Style guides also encourage coherent structure and formatting.
Several helpful style guide resources are available for loan, at both the Patrick Power Library and the Writing Centre. The Writing Centre, room 115 of the Burke Building, also has free style guide handouts designed for a number of SMU departments, prepared in partnership with Saint Mary's faculty and tailored to meet the expectations of particular disciplines of study.
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American Anthropology Association (AAA) Style Guide
Saint Mary's Anthropology Department AAA Citation and Style Guide - Includes a sample essay and how to do in-text citations
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Purdue Online Writing Lab: A basic guide to writing research papers using APA guidelines
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Saint Mary's University MLA Citation Guide for English Papers - Contains a sample English paper, information on how to do in-text citations, and a work cited
Concordia MLA Citation and Style Guide - A basic guide to writing research papers using MLA guidelines. Topics include: gathering materials, taking notes, using outlines, working with quotations, formatting the paper, and preparing a work-cited page.
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Saint Mary’s University Writing Centre Chicago Style Guide - A basic guide to citing in Chicago format: information on how to do proper footnotes and bibliography, and a sample paper.
Chicago Manual of Style Online: Contents and Citation Quick Guide
Writing Centre Handouts
The handouts used by our writing tutors cover a wide range of topics, including general essay writing, business writing, writing in the sciences, and various style guides used in respective disciplines. Key grammar handouts are also available, as well as guidelines for critical reading and analysis, writing graduate school and scholarship applications, and how to undertake academic research for a given writing assignment. All handouts are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Read our handouts online, or download the PDFs to keep as references. Some of these have worksheets to print and fill out by hand.
