MLA STYLE CITATION

Sources: Ballenger, Bruce. The Curious Writer. 2ND ed. New York: Pearson, 2006.Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook For Writers of Research Papers. New York: Modern Language Association, 2003.

Why Cite ? Good research is built on the research

of others. In the MLA Handbook, Gibaldi claims that “researchers commonly begin a project by studying past work in the area and deriving relevant information and ideas form their predecessors” (142).

Good research credits outside ideas. Furthermore, Gibaldi argues “whenever you draw on another’s work you must also document your source by indicating what you borrowed … and where you borrowed it from” (142).

Why Cite ? Citation avoids plagiarism. Plagiarism is

the use of outside ideas, words, or information without crediting the original source. Citation is a way of giving credit where credit is due.

Citation sets the context. In The Curious Writer, Ballenger argues “Citation helps readers locate the writer’s work on a specific part of the tree of knowledge in a discipline; it gives a useful context of what has already been said about a question or topic” (538).

What to Cite Any use of an outside source needs to be

cited. This includes: Summaries - a condensed version of a large

selection author’s ideas and works in your own words.

Paraphrases - restating a small selection of an author’s ideas in your own words.

Quotations - the exact words of the author Graphs, Pictures, and/or Multimedia Clips.

MLA Style MLA style citation is a set of guidelines on

how to cite sources given by the Modern Language Association.

MLA style is one of many different styles (APA, Chicago, Turabian, AMA), each of which sets its own guidelines.

MLA is commonly used in humanities courses, such as this English course.

Although each style has its own guidelines, the goal is the same: giving credit and avoiding plagiarism.

MLA Style There are two main requirements for

achieving correct MLA style: In-text citations The works cited

In-text Citations In-text citations are a way of documenting your sources

in the actual essay text and is composed of two parts: A signal phrase – a brief phrase which signals to the

reader that the following information is from a particular source. It usually gives the author’s name.

A parenthetical reference – located at the end of the citied information and enclosed in parentheses, the reference give specific information about where the citation comes from (usually the author and page number).

Example: According to President John Smith, dogs may give birth to “strange anomalies” if exposed harmful chemicals (2).

Please refer to the text book for specific instructions regarding the creation of in-text citations.

Works Cited The works cited is a separate page which lists, in

alphabetical order, all the sources you used in the essay.

Each source citation follows very specific formatting guidelines depending on what kind of source you have.

The reader of your essay should be able to match an in-text citation to its entry on the works cited.

Please refer to the textbook for specific instructions regarding the creation of a works cited.