Making Sense of MLA Format Citation

Edited by: Kimberly D. Long Created by: Krista Hoeksema/Writing Center

MLA citation making you weary?

Well, help is on the way!

There are two parts to MLA citation

Parenthetical or in-text citations o Works Cited page

But first things first

Why use MLA citation?

To give credit to your source
To help locate the original

documents To give your writing credibility To avoid plagiarism

What is plagiarism?
Using any information that is not common knowledge from any source and not giving proper credit through citation. You must cite ideas or words that are not your own or

face failure of the assignment or possibly expulsion

What needs to be cited in-text?

1. Direct quotations

2. Paraphrases

Lets play a game to see how well you know how to quote and paraphrase NOTE: The following examples on paraphrasing are
based on ideas from Doing Honest Work in College by Charles Lipson.

But quoting and paraphrasing can be tricky

Jane Doe spent most of her life as a recluse in her home, but she occasionally ventured out to parties where she let her hair down and danced on tables. (from a book by Lola Boltjes)
Jane Doe spent

most of her life as a recluse. (no citation) Is this the proper way to cite?

No. Though the entire line is not used, it is the authors idea and an exact quote. It needs to be enclosed in

Jane Doe spent most of her life as a recluse in her home, but she occasionally ventured out to parties where she let her hair down and danced on tables. (from a book by Lola Boltjes) Jane Doe spent No. This does cite most of her life as a the source, but the recluse in her exact words are home, but she used, and they are occasionally not enclosed in ventured out to quotation marks. parties where she let her hair down

Jane Doe spent most of her life as a recluse in her home, but she occasionally ventured out to parties where she let her hair down and danced on tables. (from a book by Lola Boltjes)
Jane Doe passed

most of her life away as a hermit, but she sometimes went out to parties and boogied down on tables (Boltjes

No. While the words are not exactly the authors, they are very similar, and the sentence format is basically the

Enough games Lets get to the facts about quotations and paraphrases and how to cite them.

1. Direct

quotes

If more than 20 percent of your paper is quotes, which is someones exact words, then thats too much! You want your paper to contain your writing. Too many quotes in a paper take away from the writers voice.

Proper citation for a direct quote in your paper is as follows: Example: Jane Doe spent most of her life as a recluse in her home, but she occasionally ventured out to parties where she let her hair down and danced on tables (Boltjes 259) .
Authors Last Name Page number

Another way to cite a direct quote is to use a signal phrase to mention the author in the paper
Signal phrase Author

According to Boltjes, Doe spent most of her life as a recluse in her home, but she occasionally ventured out to parties where she let her hair down and danced on tables (259). Page number

*NOTE: When the author is mentioned, you do not need to include the last name within the parentheses at the end of the quote. The page number is enough.

What do you do when you dont have a page number-such as with an internet source-to cite in parentheses?

You may then use either the paragraph number (Lewis par. 5) or section name (Brooks Introduction) in place of page numbers.

Okay, what if there isnt an author to cite?

You will then cite the title (shortened if necessary) of the article, story, or book in-text along with the page or section number. Example: (Traveling par. 19) *NOTE: You will also use the title, along with the authors name in-text if you are citing more than one work by an author in your essay. Example: (Frye, Double Vision 85)

For direct quotes that are longer than four lines, you will want to set the quote off from the rest of your paper with a block quote.

At the end of The Tell-Tale Heart, the narrators calm facade steadily disintegrates:

The officers were satisfied. My MANNER had convinced them. I was singularly at ease. They sat and while I answered cheerily, they chatted of familiar things. But, ere long, I felt myself getting pale and wished them gone. My head ached, and I fancied a ringing in my ears; but still they sat, and still chatted. The ringing became more distinct: I talked more freely to get rid of the feeling: but it continued and gained definitiveness -- until, at length, I found that the noise was NOT within my ears. (Poe 247)
1 margin punctuation author Page number(s)

NOTE: Quotation marks are not used for block quotes.

But remember, use quotes sparingly

Most of your paper will be made up of paraphrases

2. Paraphrases

Paraphrasing is another way of handling quotations. When paraphrasing, the writer relays the meaning in her own words.

An example of paraphrasing
Original quote:

Jane Doe spent most of her life as a recluse in her home, but she occasionally ventured out to parties where she let her hair down and danced on tables (Boltjes 259).

Paraphrase:
Although Jane Doe didnt leave the house much, she did like to party every once in awhile (Boltjes 259).

Why is that a good paraphrase?

While it conveys the meaning of the quote, it is not too close to the authors original words, and it is cited correctly.

When paraphrasing
Read the passage and make sure you understand its meaning 2) Think about how the passage relates to your paper 3) Turn the paper over and write the main idea in your own words. 4) Reread the quote making sure that you have not kept the same structure nor merely changed a few words
1)

What is a Works Cited page?

A list of all sources that are referenced in your essay. It contains all the information that your reader needs to locate the sources cited in your essay.

Now what will your Works Cited page look like?

Works Cited Brindle, Reginald Smith. The Search Outwards: The Orient, Jazz, Archaisms. The New Music: The Avant-Garde since 1945. New York: Oxford UP, 1975. 133-45. Burnett, James. Ellingtons Place as a Composer. Gammond 141-55.

Things to remember when making your Works Cited page

Center the words Works Cited-do not underline

them-on a new page of your paper Double space Alphabetize all of your citations, even if your listing starts with a title Start each new citation at the left margin; indent 5 spaces or a half inch for each subsequent line of an entry

One more thing to remember Many students get frustrated when doing a Works Cited page if they cant find a piece of information such as the author or other publication information (particularly with internet sources).

In that case

Simply skip it and go on to the next piece of information.

The following slides will show examples of Works Cited entries based on the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.

Poem or Short Story Examples:

Lastname, First name. "Title of Essay." Title of Collection. Ed. Editor's Name(s). Place of Publication: Publisher, Year. Page range of entry. Medium of Publication. Example: Kincaid, Jamaica. "Girl." The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories. Ed. Tobias Wolff. New York: Vintage, 1994. 306-07. Print.

Two or More works by the Same Author: [5.6.3]

*NOTE: The name of the author will only appear in

the first entry. In the rest of the entries by that author, three hyphens will replace the authors name.

Example: King, Stephen. Dolores Claiborne. New York: Viking, 1993. ---. The Shining. New York: Doubleday, 1977.

Where can I go online for more help?

Purdue University Online Writing Lab Using MLA Format: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

Works Cited
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: Modern Language Association Of America, 2003. Lipson, Charles. Doing Honest Work in College. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2004.

While MLA citation can be hard work, hopefully it all makes more sense now.