MLA CitationsMLA CitationsMLA CitationsMLA Citations

Woo hoo!Woo hoo!

MLA…WHAT?• Hopefully you all are a little familiar with MLA

citation format and remember how to use it from ENG 101.

• MLA stands for Modern Language Association, and it is the format we most often write in when we are writing in the disciplines that are part of the Humanities.

• There are other citation formats as well like Chicago (sometimes used in History) or APA (American Psychological Association…used in the Social Sciences)

Why cite?• MLA citation is really all about one

thing…giving credit to the original author of a text or an idea. People’s intellectual property is legally theirs; it belongs to them. Therefore, it is our responsibility as writers to give credit for ideas that are not our own.

Plagiarism• Also, there are consequences for using others’

ideas without proper citation…or plagiarizing. Plagiarizing can be many things from copying an essay from the internet, down to not fully paraphrasing a sentence from a source. Each level of plagiarism has different consequences, but all plagiarism can be avoided with proper citation. If you are interested in YC’s definition of plagiarism, check out our syllabus, or the Student Code of Conduct. The library also has a couple of videos on plagiarism and citation called “Diagnosis: Plagiarism” which you will find under the “Resources for Students” tab on Blackboard.

MLA Requirements• When using MLA format, you need

to be sure to cite in two places:• 1. In-text using parenthetical

citations.• 2. At the end of your paper on a

works cited page.

Parenthetical Citations• In-text citations are like the key to a map while the

works cited page is the map. You want your reader to be able to easily match the two up. That is why the first thing that appears in the citation on the works cited page is the thing goes in the parenthetical citation. More often than not that thing is the author’s last name. Sometimes it is the title of the book or article if the author is unknown.

• You also want your reader to be able to find the specific information in the book that you cited, so we also include the page number in the parenthetical citation, only if it is available.

Works Cited page• The Works Cited page is where the

reader of your paper can find all the information he or she would need to go and find your source on the shelves in the library, or on the World Wide Web. Incidentally, works cited pages in articles you read are great places to find other articles and books on your subject. This is relevant for all of the essays you will write in this course.

Titles…• MLA also has rules for formatting. This

includes how you format titles.• If you are including the title of a long work-

like a novel, a newspaper, a collection of essays or stories, or a magazine – then the title should be in italics or underlined.

• If you are including the title of a short work– like a single poem, short story or article– then the title should be in quotation marks.

Ex: Citing “The Cask of Amontillado”

• In MLA format, titles of short stories are always in quotation marks. Poem titles should be in quotes also, but the titles of whole books (like the title of your anthology) are either underlined or in italics.

• Let’s pretend I want to cite Poe’s story (pp. 107-113 in your textbook). You always want to introduce quotes with a signal phrase, so I might say: In Poe’s story he describes Fortunato as, “a man to be respected and even feared” (Poe 108). Notice a few things here: 1. There is a comma before the quote; 2. The period comes after the parentheses at the end; 3. In the parentheses, I use the author’s last name (which is the first thing that will appear in my end citation) and the page number where the quote appears in the textbook. If I was using an online source with no page numbers, then I would use the paragraph number (Poe par. 3). Your text suggests using paragraph numbers, but this is not necessary.

Works Cited• Here is an example of an end citation for the short story:

Poe, Edgar Allen. “The Cask of Amontillado.” The Norton Introduction to

Literature. Kelly J. Myers, ed. New York: Norton, 2014. 107-113. Print.

• Citations are always double spaced with a hanging indent (first line is not indented, but all the others are) and they are in alphabetical order by the first word in the citation.

• Since we are using an anthology this semester, all of your citations of primary texts will be just like this. You have no excuse to get them wrong. Just plug in the correct author, title and page range.

• Be careful with punctuation. If the punctuation isn’t correct, the citation isn’t correct.

Resources for Citation• Feel free to use a citation generator, like

www.citationmachine.net, to help you with citation. However, you always want to check to see that you’ve done it right. To do that, you can use a style guide (like the Little, Brown Handbook) or a website like the OWL at Purdue (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/11/). There are links to these sites on Blackboard under “Resources for Students.”

When do I cite?• You need to cite anytime you use material from

the text. If it isn’t your idea…cite it.• Paraphrases must be cited and you also must

completely change the wording and the sentence structure of the original material. Paraphrases are a sticky wicket and they are a place where many people get in trouble with plagiarism.

• You don’t need to use parenthetical citation for general summary, as long as it is clear to the reader which text you are summarizing.

Other MLA stuff• MLA formatting also has requirements for page

numbers and headings. I will provide you with a video about formatting assignments.

• MLA headings appear in the upper left hand corner of your paper and contain: Your name, your assignment and class, your teacher’s last name, and the date, each on a separate line. Your heading should be double spaced.

• Page numbers go on the upper right hand side of the page and should have your last name along with the page number (Doe 1, Doe 2, etc.).

• If you did purchase the Little, Brown Handbook for this course, there are resources for MLA citation beginning on pg. 667.