Unpublished Written Materials
MLA:
Senn, Milton. “Report on the Yale Child Study Center, 1962.” Box 24, ts.
[author.] [“title or other description.”] [collection number, ts. or ms.]
Sally Provence Papers, 1951-1991. Yale U, New Haven.
[collection name.] [institution, location.]APA:
Senn, M. (1962). Report on the Yale Child Study Center. Box 24, ts.
[author.] [(materials date).] [title or other description.] [collection number.]
Sally Provence Papers, 1951-1991. Yale U, New Haven.
[collection name.] [institution, location.]Chicago:
32. Senn, Report Yale Child Study Center 1962, Box 24.
[fn. #.] [author last name, shortened title, page or file #.]
[Shortened Chicago reference; see More Notes on Chicago Style for more information.]
As with all citations, the goal in listing unpublished materials is to make it easy for readers to track down your sources, if necessary. If the materials are available from a library or collection, list them first by author. Include a title or any other distinguishing material, as well as any numbers assigned by the collection to help catalog the materials. Identify the institution that holds the collection. Note: “ts.” (“typescript”) indicates typed materials; “ms.” (“manuscript”) indicates handwritten ones.
PRIVATELY HELD UNPUBLISHED MATERIAL
For unpublished material that is not housed in a public collection, each of the three citation styles has different conventions. MLA style allows you to list unpublished material even if it’s not housed publicly; add “Author’s private collection” at the end of your listing. Chicago style recommends a full footnote at the point of citation, but no listing in the Bibliography. (See Email and Instant Messages for a similar example in Chicago style.) In APA convention, only sources that can be publicly accessed are listed in your References. If you use materials in your private possession, APA style dictates that you refer to them this way in your paper and not list them at the end.
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