MLA Format

Citing someone who is cited or quoted in the source you are using:

Here is the “Works Cited” listing for the article “San Francisco Legislator Pushes Feng Shui

Building Codes,” in your textbook Quest 3 Reading and Writing:

Gaeddert. “San Francisco Legislator

Pushes Feng Shui Building

Codes.” Quest 3 Reading and

Writing. Pamela Hartmann and

Laurie Blass. New York:

McGraw/Hill, 2007. 5-6. Print.

See the paragraph at the top of

page 5, which refers to a proposal

to include feng shui principles in

California building codes:

Spokespeople for the California Building Standards Commission (CBSC) and the California Building Industry Association have criticized the resolution. “My … feeling … is that in these times with the budget cuts … we’re looking at the highest priority issues,” said Stan Nishumura executive director of the CBC. “I don’t think this is our highest priority.”

In my own paper, I want to mention Yee’s feng shui proposal, and quote Nishimura’s argument against it.

I can write:

One lawmaker has proposed the use of feng shui principles in building codes in California, but this idea was rejected by a spokesman for the California Building Standards Association who said, “I don’t think this is our highest priority” (Nishimura, qtd. in Gaeddert 6).

You can also mention Nishimura when you introduce the quotation; that way, you don’t have to include his name in parentheses at the end:

One lawmaker has proposed the use of feng shui principles in building codes in California, but this idea was rejected Stan Nishimura a spokesman for the California Building Standards Association, who said, “I don’t think this is our highest priority” (qtd. in Gaeddert 6).

Be sure to include the page number.

In MLA format, the important things to include in the in-text citation are the last name and the page number.

The last name is the name that begins your entry on your “Works Cited” list.

Gaeddert is the name that begins the listing on the “Works Cited” page:

Gaeddert. “San Francisco Legislator

Pushes Feng Shui Building

Codes.” Quest 3 Reading and

Writing. Pamela Hartmann and

Laurie Blass. New York:

McGraw/Hill, 2007. 5-6. Print.

Here is the “Works Cited” listing for the article “Modern Stone Age

Humans,” in your textbook Quest 3 Reading and Writing:

Here is the “Works Cited” listing for the article “Modern Stone Age

Humans,” in your textbook Quest 3 Reading and Writing:

Here is the “Works Cited” listing for the article “Modern Stone Age

Humans,” in your textbook Quest 3 Reading and Writing:

Kottak, C. P. “Modern Stone Age

Humans.” Quest 3 Reading

and Writing. Pamela Hartmann

and Laurie Blass. New York:

McGraw/Hill, 2007. 64-68. Print.

See lines 170-172 on page 68:

Wherever gathering contributes more to the diet than hunting, women’s economic labor is highly valued and social status based on gender is rudimentary (Draper, 1975).

Note that the citation form in your texbook is APA and not MLA. This is why you see a date and not a page number in parentheses:

Where ever gathering contributes more to the diet than hunting, women’s economic labor is highly valued and social status based on gender is rudimentary (Draper, 1975).

This is not a direct quote; it is Kottak’s paraphrase of Draper’s idea.

If I want to use the idea in my own paper, I do this, using my own paraphrase of the idea:

Men and women tend to be more equal in societies where gathering and not hunting is the main source of food (Draper, cited in Kottak 68).

Kottak is the name that begins the listing on the “Works Cited” page:

Kottak, C. P. “Modern Stone Age

Humans.” Quest 3 Reading

and Writing. Pamela Hartmann

and Laurie Blass. New York:

McGraw/Hill, 2007. 64-68. Print.