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Citing Your Sources

What Is MLA Style?

 

The style recommended by the association for preparing scholarly manuscripts and student research papers concerns itself with the mechanics of writing, such as punctuation, quotation, and documentation of sources.

 

MLA style has been widely adopted by schools, academic departments, and instructors for nearly half a century. MLA guidelines are also currently used by over 125 scholarly and literary journals, newsletters, and magazines with circulations over one thousand; by hundreds of smaller periodicals; and by many university and commercial presses. MLA style is commonly followed not only in the United States but in Canada and other countries as well

 

The Modern Language Association does not publish its documentation guidelines on the Web. For an authoritative explanation of MLA style, see the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (for high school and undergraduate college students) and the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (for graduate students, scholars, and professional writers).

www.mla.org

 

 

Two Steps in Citing a Source

When ever you use borrowed information, you must cite its source (tell where the information came from.) There are two steps in citing a source

Step 1 :   An in-text citation — insert a short reference in the body of your paper.

Step 2:    A works-cited list — prepare a list describing all your sources completely. Locate list at the end of the paper

 

 

 

 

Citing Sources

In-text Citations

 

 

The citation at the end of the sentence tells us that the information in the sentence came from page 353 of a work written by Hogue. If readers want more information about this source, they can go to the works-cited list and find this information under the name Hogue.

Example:

The purpose of an in-text citation is to refer the reader to the works-cited list at the end of your paper. In-text citations are also called parenthetical references because they are enclosed in parentheses.  Place in-text citations immediately after the borrowed information, usually at the end  of a sentence, before the final period  (Hogue 353).

 

Common Types of in-text Citations 
AUTHORS IN TEXT CITATION

ONE AUTHOR

(Davis 64-65)

TWO OR THREE AUTHORS

(Hall and Hall 140)    If there are two or three authors, give all their names.

FOUR OR MORE AUTHORS

(Singleton et al. 345)
If there are four or more authors, use the first author's name and the Latin abbreviation et al. (shortened from et al ii, "and others). Note the period after the abbreviation al.

ENTIRE ARTICLE ON ONE PAGE

(Allen)

AUTHOR ALREADY MENTIONED

(140)
If you have already mentioned the author's name in the text, do not repeat the name in your citation.  For example, if you introduced the borrowed information with a phrase such as "According to Davis" or "As Hall and Hall wrote", give only the page number.

SAME AUTHOR, TWO DIFFERENT WORKS

(Tannen, Gender 220)
(Tannen, You Just 47)
When you use information in a paper from two different works by the same author, include a short name for each work to differentiate them. In the examples, an author named Tannen wrote two books.  The title of the first book is shortened to Gender, and the title of the second book is shorted ed to You Just.

NO AUTHOR

("Earthquakes" 212)
If there is no author, use a short title in quotations marks.

ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLE

("Global Warming")
For an encyclopedia article, use the author's name if you know it.  If you don't know it, use the title of the article in quotations marks.  You do not need a page number since encyclopedia articles are arranged alphabetically and your reader will be able to find the source easily.

ELECTRONIC RESOURCE

(J&J "Credo" screen 2)
For an electronic source (online or CD-ROM) follow the same system as for print sources. If there are no page numbers, use whatever numbering system the source has --section number (abbreviated as "sec."), paragraph number (abbreviated as "par."), screen number--or use no number.
(Hogue 355-56)

 

 

 

 

 

Citing Sources

Works-cited List

 

The second step in citing sources is to

Common types of Work-cited citations:

 

Books |    Articles from Magazines, Journals & Newspapers |   Internet Documents

For more detailed explanations of how to use these formats, consult the official style manual for the format you are using. Ask a librarian to show you one of these books: 1) MLA Style Manual and 2) Guide to Scholarly Publishing (REF PN 147 G444 1998)
Online Citation CreatorWarlick, David, "Son of Citation Machine." Apr 2006. The Landmark Project. 30 Nov 2006 <http://www.citationmachine.net> 

 

Books

 

Author Title Publisher City Publisher Name Year

Author (hitchcock)

"Ghostly Gallery" book cover

world map

Publisher icon

1962

Hitchcock, Alfred.

Alfred Hitchcock's Ghostly Gallery .

New York:

Random House,

1962.


Author's last name, First name. Middle initial (if any). Title. Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication.

AUTHORS BOOK CITATION 

One author

Hitchcock, Alfred. Alfred Hitchcock's Ghostly Gallery. New York: Random
      House, 1962.
 

Two or three
authors

Stewart, David W. and David H. Furse. Effective Television Advertising:
      A Study of 1000 Commercials
. Lexington: Lexington Books, 1986.

Note: 1) last name, first  2) first name last name.     List first author's last name, followed by first name, and middle initial (if any); then, second author's first name, middle initial (if any), and last name.
 

Four or more
authors

Holloway, Susan D., et al. Through My Own Eyes: Single Mothers
     and the Cultures of Poverty. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1997.

If there are four or more authors, use the first author's name and the Latin abbreviation et al. (shortened from et al ii, "and others). Note the period after the abbreviation al.
 

Editor(s) rather
than author(s):

Baughman, Cynthia, ed. Women on Ice: Feminist Essays on the
     Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan Spectacle
. New York: Routledge, 1995.

 

 

 

Articles from Periodicals

Magazines
Authors Title Magazine Name Date Pages

two authors

"Certified Organic"

Newsweek magazine cover

calendar

pages

Underwood, Ann
Karen Springen.

"Certified Organic."

Newsweek

3 Sept. 2002

23+

 

  1. Author's last name, first name middle initial (if any).
  2. "Title of Article."
  3. Title of Magazine.
  4. Day (if given) Month (abbreviated except May, June, and July) Year:
  5. Page numbers of article (if the article is not printed on consecutive pages, give the first page followed by a + (plus symbol).

 

EXAMPLE:      

Underwood, Ann, Karen Springen. "Certified Organic." Newsweek. 3 Sep. 2002: 23+

 

 

Journal Articles
Authors Title Journal Vol. & No. Date Pages

Authors

"Effectiveness
     of . . . "

journal

Vol 288,

No.11

calendar

pages

Hodnett, et al.

"Effectiveness of Nurses as Providers of Birth Labor Support in North American Hospitals"

The American Journal of Anesthesiology

288.11

(18 Sept. 2002):

p 1373-81

 

  1. Author's Last name, First name Middle initial (if any).
  2. "Title of article."
  3. journal title
  4. volume number.
  5. Issue number (if each number of journal begins on page 1)
  6. (Date of publication):
  7. page numbers.

EXAMPLE (Multiple Authors):

Hodnett, et al. "Effectiveness of Nurses as Providers of Birth Labor Support in North American Hospitals." The American Journal of Anesthesiology 288.11 (18 Sept. 2002): 1373-81.
 

 

 

 

Newspaper Articles
Author Title Newspaper Date Sec. & Page no.

one author

"Universities
Face . . . "


S. F Chronicle logo

calendar

pages

Schevitz, Tanya.

"Universities Face Student Deluge."

San Francisco Chronicle

4 Sept. 2002:

A16+

 

  1. Author's last name, first name, with middle initial (if any).
  2. "Title of article."
  3. Title of newspaper.
  4. Day (if given) Month (abbreviated except May, June, and July) Year:
  5. Page numbers of article. Section and Page Number(s): If the article is not printed on consecutive pages, just give the first page followed by + (a plus symbol).

EXAMPLE:  

Schevitz, Tanya."Universities Face Student Deluge." San Francisco Chronicle 4 Sept 2000: A16+.
 

 

 

Internet

Web Pages
Authors Web Page Title Site Title Date of Publication Sponsoring Institution Date of Access <URL>

Authors

"MLA Formatting and Style Guide "

owl

calendar

Purdue

laptop

world wide web

 Stolley, Karl. "MLA Formatting and Style Guide ." The OWL at Purdue. 2002. Purdue University
Writing Lab .
18 July 2003. http://owl.english.
purdue.edu/
owl/resource
/557/01/

 

Stolley, Karl. "MLA Formatting and Style Guide." The OWL at Purdue. 10 May 2006. Purdue University Writing Lab. 12 May 2006 <http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/>.

  1. Author's last name (if author is given), first name, middle initial (if any).
  2. Title of Page.
  3. Title of Site. (If no title is given, provide description, such as Home Page)
  4. Date of publication or latest update (abbreviated, except May, June, and July).
  5. Name of any institution or organization sponsoring or associated with the website (if given).
  6. Day Month (abbreviated, except May, June, and July)
  7. Year of researcher's visit.<URL (web address) of the page>.

If any of the information above is not given (such as last update, author, ...), leave the information out.
URLs that won't fit on one line of your Works Cited list should be broken at slashes, when possible.

 

Other examples:

 

 

Movies (Media)
Title Director Performers MediaType Recording Studio Date of Release

The Birds

Author (hitchcock)

Authors

movie

movie logo

calendar

 

The Birds

Dir. Hitchcock

Perf. Tippi Hedron

Film.

Universal Pictures

28 Mar 1963

 

  1. title
  2. director,
  3. (performers)
  4. media type
  5. the film studio or distributor
  6. the release year.

If other information, like names of performers, is relevant to how the film is referred to in your paper, include that as well.

 

EXAMPLE:

The Usual Suspects. Dir. Bryan Singer. Perf. Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Stephen Baldwin, and Benecio del Toro. Film. Polygram, 1995.

Citizen Kane. Dir. Orson Welles. Perfs. Orson Welles, Joseph Cotton. Film. RKO Radio Pictures, 1941.

Medicine at the Crossroads. Prod. 13/WNET and BBC TV. Videocassette. PBS Video, 1993

See Resources below for other kinds of media.

 

 

NOTE: The MLA formats for electronic publications are not completely standardized. For more information see: Bedford/St. Martin's, "Online: Using Italics and Underlining in MLA Style."http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/cite5.html#1 (Box 5.3)

Underlining vs. italics Read this
"When composing in HTML, don't substitute underlining for italics, because underlining in HTML indicates that the underlined text is an active hypertext link. (All HTML editing programs automatically underline any text linked to another hypertext or Web site.) When composing Web documents, use italics for titles, for emphasis, and for words, letters, and numbers referred to as such. When you write with programs such as email that don't allow italics, type an underscore mark _like this_ before and after text you would otherwise italicize or underline." (1)

 

Example:  Works Cited - MLA   (doc file)

 

 

 

Resources

  1. Bedford/St. Martin's, "Online: Using Italics and Underlining in MLA Style." http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/cite5.html#1
         (Box 5.1)
  2. Hogue, Ann. "The essentials of English: a writer's handbook. New York: Pearson Education, Inc. 2003.
  3. Stolley, Karl. "MLA Formatting and Style Guide." The OWL at Purdue. 10 May 2006. Purdue University Writing Lab. 12 May 2006 http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/.
  4. "How to Cite Film, Video and Online Media." 07 Dec 2000, Media Resource Center, Moffitt Library, U C Berkeley, Mar 2007. http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/mla.html

 

 

 

 

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