MLA citation

Parenthetical or in-text citationsWorks Cited Page

But first things first…

There are two parts to MLA citation…

To give credit to your source

To help locate the original documents

To give your writing credibility

To avoid plagiarism

Why use MLA citation?

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…

What is plagiarism?

face failure of the assignment or possible

expulsion!

1. Direct quotations

2. Paraphrases

3. Pictures

What needs to be cited in-text?

Let’s 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)

Is this the proper way to cite?

NO!

Jane Doe spent most of her life as a recluse. (no citation)

NO! This does cite the source, the exact words are used, and they are not enclosed in quotation marks.

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)

Is this the proper way to cite?

NO!

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

NO! This does cite the source, the exact words are used, and they are not enclosed in quotation marks.

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)

Is this the proper way to cite?

NO!

Jane Doe passed most of her life away as a hermit, but she sometimes went out to parties and boogied down on tables (Boltjes 259).

NO! While the words are not exactly the author’s, they are very similar, and the sentence format is basically the same.

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

Direct Quotes

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).

Proper Citation for a direct quote in your paper is as follows:

Author’s Last Name

Page Number

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).

*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.

Another way to cite a direct quote is to use a signal phrase to mention the

author in the paperSignal Phrase

Author Name

Page Number

You may then use eitherthe paragraph number (Lewis par. 5)

or section name (Brooks “Introduction”) in place of page

numbers.

What do you do when you don’t have a page number – such as

with an internet source – to cite in parentheses?

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 author’s name in-text if you are citing more than one work by an author in your essay.Example: (Frye, Double Vision 85)

Okay, what if there isn’t an author to cite?

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

At the end of “The Tell-Tale Heart”, the narrator’s calm façade 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 wishing 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 definiteness – until, at length, I found that the noise was NOT within my ears. (Poe 247)

1” margin PunctuationAuthor

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….

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

Paraphrases

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).

Paraphrasing:Although Jane Doe didn’t leave the house much, she did like to party every once in awhile (Boltjes 259).

An example of paraphrasing

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

Why is that a good paraphrase?

1. 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 on a note card

4. Reread the quote making sure you have not kept the same structure nor merely changed a few words

When paraphrasing…

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.

What is a Works Cited Page?

Works CitedBrindle, 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. “Ellington’s Place as a Composer.” Gammond 141-155.

Duke Ellington’s Washington. 2002. Estate of Mercer K. Ellington. 3 June 2002

<http://www.dukeellington.com/>

What will your Works Cited page look like?

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

Things to remember when making your Works Cited page…

Many students get frustrated when doing a Works Cited page if they can’t 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.

One more thing to remember…