Mla documentation

Resources for
MLA assistance

MLA
Documentation
Learn how to cite sources correctly, reduce the
risk of plagiarism, and produce papers that will
dazzle your instructors!
Cite all of your Facilitator: Julie Ewing
research
Plagiarism

Why do we document our sources?

• It gives us credibility as it illustrates we can
follow the guidelines correctly.

• It gives our sources the credit they deserve for
their own ideas.

their own ideas.
• It guides our readers to other sources that
may interest them.

their own ideas.
• It guides our readers to other sources that
may interest them.
• AND it reduces the risk of plagiarism.

When do we cite sources?
• When quoting material directly from an
original source.

original source.
• When borrowing ideas from an original
source, even when we express them in our
own words by summarizing or paraphrasing.

original source.
• When using factual information that is not
common knowledge.

original source.
• When using factual information that is not
common knowledge.

In other words, if the idea did not originate in your head, you
had better cite the source!

MLA stands for:
The Modern Language Association

It is the style used in most Humanities
disciplines, such as
• English
• Art
• Modern Languages
• History

MLA is actually very simple, consisting
of two parts:

• In-text Parenthetical Citations
• The Works Cited page

No footnotes or endnotes are needed in MLA.

In-text Parenthetical Citations
Immediately after the borrowed source
material, indicate in parentheses the author’s
last name and the page number on which you
found the borrowed material.
Example:
“We become the spirit and body of animals we
eat” (Peterson 117).
Note the punctuation! The period ending the sentence comes after the
citation.

If you lead into the source material using the
author’s name, cite only the page number:
According to Brenda Peterson, “We become the
spirit and body of animals we eat” (117).

And remember, you must cite the source even if
you paraphrase the source material into your
own words:

Author Brenda Peterson suggests that eating wild
game brings us closer to the animals in body and
in spirit (117).

• This is easy when we draw information from
print sources that list authors’ names and
page numbers.

• But what if the source doesn’t list an
author, doesn’t have page numbers, or both?

If the source doesn’t cite an author, then
you put the title (or a shortened version of
the title) in the citation.
Examples:
A New York Times editorial called Ralph Ellison
“a writer of universal reach” (“Death” C3).

Simply put, public relations is “doing good and
getting credit” for it (Getting Yours 3).

If you draw the material from a non-print
source, then use just the author’s last name (or the
title if there is no author listed).
• “The Federal Reserve’s findings, released
Thursday, show the financial system, like the
overall economy, is healing but not yet
healed” (“Ten”).
Associated Press article online, “Ten of the largest U.S. banks need $75 billion.”

• “I know many remarkable women who have
no idea how truly remarkable they are”
(Ballenger).
Personal interview with author Bruce Ballenger.

Dos and Don’ts
What you can put in a What you can’t put in a
parenthetical citation: parenthetical citation:
• Author’s last name • Author first names and titles
• Title of work or shorter (Ms., Dr., Ph.D., etc.)
version if long (if no author • Full title if it is long
listed) • Symbols or abbreviations for
pages: p., pg., #
• Page numbers
• Web URL’s
• Paragraph numbers (if from
• Other bibliographic
an online source that
information that can be found
includes paragraph in the Works Cited
numbers) (editions, editors, publishers, e
tc.)

Works Cited
• The Works Cited page ends the paper.
• It is an alphabetical listing, by author’s last name
or title, of all the sources cited in the paper.
• It is double-spaced.
• The first line of each entry begins flush left at the
margin; subsequent lines of a single citation are
indented (use the “hanging indent” function on
your word processor).
• There are no single spaces or extra spaces in the
document.

There is no need to memorize!
• There are many, many types of sources whose
citations are formatted differently, so trying to
memorize each one would be difficult, not to
mention unfair to the student!
• That’s why we have the MLA Handbook, a
reference guide that lists all of the formatting
rules, as well as numerous online sites that
can guide you through the process.

This is all you need to construct a
flawless Works Cited list:
• An MLA Handbook, a writing textbook
containing a section on MLA, or access to an
online MLA resource site.
• All of the relevant bibliographic information
about the source.
Make sure you have a print copy handy; if not, be sure to
write down all of the information when you find the
source.

Sample Citations
• A book:

Brockenbrough, Martha. Things That Make Us
[Sic]. New York: St. Martin’s, 2008. Print.

*Author’s last name, First name. Title. City of Publication: Publisher, copyright date.]

• A magazine:

Jones, Thom. “The Pugilist at Rest.” The New
Yorker. 12 Dec. 1991: 38-47. Print.
*Last name, First name. “Article Title.” Magazine title. Date: pages.]

• A film:
Saving Private Ryan. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Perf.
Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, and Matt Damon.
Paramount, 1998. DVD.
[Title. Director. Actors. Distribution company, year. Medium. ]

An interview:

Clinton, Bill. Personal interview. 20 January, 2009.
[Last name, First name. Personal interview. Date.]

A website:

“Submissions wanted for 'The Kokanee' Literary
Magazine.” Lake Tahoe Community College. 11
May 2009. Web. 13 May 2009.
*“Title of article or page.” Website title. Date of pub. or update. Medium. Date you access
it.]

• An article found through a library database

Brown, Lester R. “Could Food Shortages Bring
Down Civilization?” Scientific American
(2009): 50-57. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 13
May 2009.

*Last name, first name. “Article title.” Journal title. Publication date. Page numbers.
Database. Medium. Date of access.]

This is what a Works Cited for the previous
sources would look like:
Works Cited
The parenthetical citations would look like this:
Brockenbrough, Martha. Things That Make Us [Sic]. New York: St.
(Brockenbrough 159)
Martin’s, 2008. Print.

Brown, Lester R. “Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?” (Brown)
Scientific American. (2009): 50-57. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 13
(Clinton)
May 2009.

Clinton, Bill. Personal interview. 20 January, 2009. (Jones 42)
Jones, Thom. “The Pugilist at Rest.” The New Yorker. 12 Dec. 1991: 38-47.
(Saving)
Print.

Saving Private Ryan. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Perf. Tom Hanks, Tom (“Submissions”)
Sizemore, and Matt Damon. Paramount, 1998. DVD.

“Submissions wanted for 'The Kokanee' Literary Magazine.” Lake Tahoe
*Notice how the words that show up in the
Community College. 11 May 2009. Web. 13 May 2009.
parenthetical citations match up with the
first words in the Works Cited.

Resources for Using MLA Style
The LTCC and TMCC Library websites have
several citation maker links:
http://library.ltcc.edu/
http://www.tmcc.edu/library/

You can also visit the official MLA site:
http://www.mla.org

MLA Quiz
1. You quote a source in your paper. In which of
the following situations would you NOT have
to use a parenthetical citation?
a. If you mention the author’s name in the text of
your essay.
b. The information is common knowledge.
c. You’ve cited the same source earlier in the paper.
d. None of the above

The answer:

d: None of the above.
(If it is quoted, it must be cited!)

2. How do you parenthetically cite a source that
has no author?
a. You just put the page number in parentheses.
b. You just mention the title of the publication
in your text.
c. You don’t cite at all.
d. You include the title (or part of the title if it is
long) and include the page number, if there is
one.

The answer:

D: You include the title
(or part of the title if it is
long) and include the
page number, if there is
one.

3. The following passage, taken from a book by
Harold Guilbroy, is cited correctly:
Francis Bacon also weighed in on the dangers of
imitation, observing that “it is hardly possible
at once to admire an author and to go
beyond him” (Bacon 113).
a. True
b. False

The answer:

b: False
The source is written by
Guilbroy, who merely cites Bacon.
In this case, the citation would
look like this: (qtd. in Guilbroy
113)

4. The date you access an Internet document is
part of the citation in the Works Cited page.

a. True
b. False

5. Only print sources need to be cited both
parenthetically and in the Works Cited page.

a. True
b. False

The answer:

b: False
(Everything must be cited parenthetically and in
the Works Cited!)

Works Cited
Ballenger, Bruce. The Curious Researcher. 6th ed. New
York: Longman, 2009. Print.
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research
Papers. 6th ed. New York: Modern Language
Association of America, 2003. Print.
“LTCC Library.” Lake Tahoe Community College. 11 May
2009. Web. 13 May 2009.
Maimon, Elaine P., Janice H. Peritz, and Kathleen Blake
Yancey. The Brief McGraw-Hill Handbook. Boston:
McGraw-Hill, 2010. Print.
“TMCC Library.” Truckee Meadows Community College.
2010. Web. 28 April, 2010.

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