Get the punctuation right
Styles differ over commas, italics, ordering, and capitalisation in ways that are tedious to memorise and easy to get wrong by hand.
Built for thoughtful, responsible writing
Format your references without the guesswork
Turn source details into correctly formatted citations and a reference list, in the style your department asks for. Then check the handful of fields that actually go wrong.
Common styles coveredReference list buildingFields you can edit
Validated against*Originality.aiScribbrGPTZero
*we regularly validate random samples of results against these detectors
Why it helps
The formatting is mechanical, so let it be mechanical
Keep a list as you go
Building the reference list while you write is what prevents the end-of-project scramble to remember where a quotation came from.
Edit every field
Automatic extraction misreads sources regularly. Everything stays editable, because the version you submit should be one you checked.
What happens inside
What happens inside the citation generator
Source details are mapped to the fields a style expects, then rendered according to that style's rules. Both halves can go wrong, which is why review matters.
Read the source details
Author, title, container, publisher, date, and locator are identified from what you provide.
Apply the style rules
Those fields are ordered, punctuated, and capitalised according to the style you selected.
Return it editable
You get the formatted citation and can correct any field. Automated extraction is a starting point, not a final answer.
Made for real study work
For anyone whose references get marked
Students
Get the reference list right without spending an evening on punctuation, and avoid losing marks on presentation rather than content.
Researchers
Keep references consistent across a long document and reformat when a journal asks for a different style.
Educators
Point students at a tool that shows what a style expects, rather than one that hides the rules behind a button.
Three simple steps
How to use the citation generator
- 1
Choose your style
Pick the style your department requires. If you are unsure, check the assignment brief before you start rather than converting later.
- 2
Add the source
Paste the details or a link. Books, journal articles, web pages, and less standard sources all have their own field requirements.
- 3
Check and save
Verify the author order, the date, and the title capitalisation, then add it to your list.
Side by side
More than a formatting machine
Most generators produce something that looks like a citation. The difference is whether it survives contact with a marker who knows the style.
Field accuracy
TextPatrol Citation Generator
Every field stays editable and the ones that are commonly misread are called out, because extraction from a page or a link is unreliable.
A basic tool
Fields are auto-filled and presented as final, so a misread author or date is submitted unnoticed.
Awkward source types
TextPatrol Citation Generator
Lectures, videos, PDFs, and AI tools all have their own requirements, and the guidance covers them rather than forcing them into a book template.
A basic tool
Built around books and journal articles; anything else comes out malformed.
In-text citations
TextPatrol Citation Generator
Treated as part of the job, since a perfect reference list with wrong in-text markers still fails the requirement.
A basic tool
Reference list only, leaving the in-text form to guesswork.
Style guidance
TextPatrol Citation Generator
Explains what a style expects, so you can tell when output looks wrong instead of trusting it blindly.
A basic tool
A dropdown of style names with no indication of what each one requires.
Building a list
TextPatrol Citation Generator
References accumulate as you go, which is what stops the end-of-project reconstruction from memory.
A basic tool
One citation at a time, copied out and pasted somewhere else.
What else you can run
TextPatrol Citation Generator
The same document can be checked for originality and for unsupported claims in one place.
A basic tool
Citation formatting only.
Take the whole paper with you
Premium gives you higher limits, document history, file uploads, and every writing tool in one calm workspace.
Keep working
One paper, more than one useful tool
The complete guide
Getting citations right
Citation is not decoration. It shows which parts of your argument are yours and lets a reader follow the rest back to where it came from.
Choosing the right style
APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and the rest differ in ordering, punctuation, and how in-text references appear. None is more correct than another; the only thing that matters is which one your department requires.
Check the assignment brief before you start. Converting a finished reference list from one style to another is slow, and it is where inconsistencies get introduced.
What generators get wrong
Automated extraction misreads sources more often than most people expect. Common failures include treating an organisation as a person, capturing the website name instead of the publisher, using the retrieval date instead of the publication date, and applying title case where a style wants sentence case.
Edited collections, translated works, and sources with many authors are the hardest cases. If a citation looks unusual, it is worth checking against the style guide rather than assuming the tool knows better.
In-text citations matter too
A flawless reference list does not help if the in-text markers are missing or malformed. Every quotation, paraphrase, and borrowed figure needs one, and it needs to point unambiguously at the right entry.
Page numbers are the most commonly omitted part. For direct quotations most styles require them, and a marker checking your quotation is the person who will notice.
Citing unusual sources
Lectures, datasets, videos, social media posts, and AI tools all have defined formats in the major styles, and they are the ones people most often invent a format for. Look the specific type up rather than adapting a book citation.
AI assistance is the newest case and the least settled. Where your institution requires disclosure, the citation is part of that disclosure, and the requirement to declare it exists independently of how you format it.
Further reading
Learn more about citing sources
Practical guides for the source types that cause the most trouble.
Errors in in-text citations
The mistakes that cost marks most often, and how to avoid each one.
Read the guideCiting with no author
What to do when a source has no named author, and how the in-text form changes.
Read the guidePage numbers in citations
When a page number is required, and how to handle sources that do not have any.
Read the guideHow to cite ChatGPT
Formatting AI assistance as a source, and when disclosure is separately required.
Read the guideHow to cite a lecture
Handling material that was delivered rather than published.
Read the guideHow to cite a PDF
Working out what a PDF actually is before you can cite it correctly.
Read the guideQuestions, answered
Frequently asked questions
Citation is the honest part of the work
References exist so a reader can tell your contribution from your sources and go check the difference. A generator formats them; it does not decide what needs citing.
Cite what you used
Every quotation, paraphrase, and borrowed figure needs a reference. Formatting is the easy half; deciding that something needs attribution is the half that matters.
Check before you submit
Generated citations contain errors. Reviewing author order, dates, and capitalisation is a few minutes' work and it is the difference between a reference list that helps you and one that costs you.
Your text stays yours
We do not sell your text, publish it, or add it to a public database for other people's checks to match against.
Build the reference list as you write
Format each source once, check the fields that matter, and finish with a list you can submit.
Generate citation