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Citation of Sources—MLA Format
Occasionally in writing you may have to borrow information from an outside source or sources. It is important that you give credit to the author or source you are borrowing from. We call this borrowing “citing.” No matter whether you summarize, paraphrase, or use quotations directly from the source, you must cite any information that is not common knowledge. For instance, it is common knowledge that the earth’s surface is covered by about 70% water, but most people would have to look up the fact that the earth’s circumference is approximately 24,600 miles. If you include a fact in your paper that you have to look up (or you think most people would have to look up) cite the source in your paper.
MLA Style
Different academic disciplines have their own preferred styles for how to cite sources within a paper and how to acknowledge those sources at the end of the paper. English and other humanities courses prefer MLA style (Modern Language Association). The instructions given throughout this packet all follow MLA style. If you’re writing a paper for a different class, be sure to check with you teacher to see what style he or she prefers.
In-Text Citations
When we talk about citing sources, we’re really talking about two different ideas—in-text citations and citations at the end of the paper (in the format of a works cited list or bibliography). The MLA suggests giving credit to your sources by using a combination of signal phrases and parenthetical references as often as possible within the body of your paper. A signal phrase suggests to the reader that something borrowed from a source (a quotation, statistic, idea, etc.) is about to be used. A signal phrase usually includes an author’s last name; the parentheses which follow the passage indicate the page number the information was found on:
According to Fabre, in order to be shown in America, the New York Board of Censors demanded extensive cutting of the film, especially of the trial scene (348).
This is the preferred method of citing sources within the body of your paper. (Note that even though the above passage is not a direct quotation, you still need to cite it since the idea belonged to Fabre, not you). Occasionally, however, you may have a large quantity of material, possibly from a variety of sources, that you need to cite to be able to make your point effectively. It may sound clunky to constantly introduce the author of the source at the beginning of the sentence. To avoid this, it is acceptable to place the author and page number of the source within parentheses at the end of the borrowed material:
The movie did reasonably well in Argentina, but problems continued to mount as Wright and Chenal looked to distribute the film in the United States (Scripps 108). (Note that only the last name is needed, but make sure it matches up with the name in the left margin of the works cited page.)
But how do you know where to put the parentheses in the paragraph? Simple--whenever you are done borrowing from the outside source and intend to go back to your own ideas, you end the citation by putting the page number (and/or author) in parentheses. The parenthetical citation is actually a clue to the reader that you’re done borrowing from the outside source. Some writers think they are simplifying things by saving the parenthetical citation for the end of a paragraph or other large chunk of writing. The danger in this is that you are basically saying to the reader that everything in that paragraph, then, is borrowed material. Generally, this is not considered good writing form. A paper that relies on outside sources is still a paper crafted by the writer, using outside sources to supplement the writer’s ideas. In other words, don’t let outside ideas and quotations dominate your paper. Choose them wisely and sparingly. To avoid confusion in these types of paragraphs, use clear signal phrases so that the reader is never confused as to what information is yours and what information is from an outside source. If you’re ever in doubt as to whether you should cite something or not, cite it. It can’t hurt anything and you remove all possibility of plagiarism.
What do I do if I don’t know the author or can’t find the page number?
Occasionally, especially on web sites, the author of the source is not given; in these cases use the title of the work. If it’s an internet source, use whatever seems to be the main title of the page you are looking at. When writing your paper, include the title of the source wherever you would have used the author’s name in the above examples. If the title seems too long, just use the first few words of the title. Let’s say you found an article (with no author given) entitled “Gender Differences Affect Teenage Reading Habits.” Simply call it “Gender Differences” in your paper. The reader will be able to find the full title in your works cited page.
Likewise, sometimes it is impossible to tell on what page the material was found, especially when using internet sources. In these cases, use the simple abbreviation “n. pg.” (no page) to indicate to the reader that the source didn’t have a page number. In the case of the internet, do not use the page numbers your printer put on the pages nor try to guess what the approximate page would be. Since all printers and computer screens are different, simply admit to your reader that you don’t know the page number rather than have him or her search for a fictitious page number:
Harrington states that in the movie “ the defense lawyer’s final plea, a blistering indictment of American society, is condensed from 18 pages to two non specific sentences” (n. pg.).
When using parenthetical references within the body of your paper, place the final punctuation mark (usually a period) after the parentheses. See the exception below for blocked-off quotations.
Using Quoted Material
Much of the following information comes from the Writer’s Inc. books that can be found in every English teacher’s classroom. A quotation can be a single word or an entire paragraph, but choose quotations carefully. Keep them as brief as possible—you only need to quote enough information to help support the point you are trying to make. When you do quote material, be sure that the capitalization, punctuation, and spelling are the same as that in the original work. Clearly mark any variations for your readers. Brackets [ ] allow you to insert words of your own into quoted material. You can insert words in brackets to explain a confusing reference or to keep a sentence grammatically correct:
And what emerged [from the class’s reading of Henry James] was this: that they were not, with a few exceptions, readers—never had been; that they had always occupied themselves with music, TV, and videos (19).
The words in brackets help to clarify things for the reader so that they know that this quotation refers to the discussion of Henry James from earlier in the source.
Short Quotations:
If a quotation is four typed lines or fewer, work it into the body of your paper and put quotations marks around it:
Healy concludes that “the state of literacy in the United States today is declining so precipitously, while video and computer technologies are becoming so powerful, that the act of reading itself may well be on the way to obsolescence” (22).
Long Quotations:
Quotations of more than four typed lines should be set off from the rest of the writing by indenting each line 10 spaces and double-spacing the material. When quoting two or more paragraphs, indent the first line of each paragraph three additional spaces. Do not use quotation marks for blocked-off quotations, unless, of course, they appear in the original text.
Note: After the final punctuation mark of the quotation, leave two spaces before you cite the parenthetical reference and place the final punctuation mark before the parenthetical reference.
Generally, use a complete sentence and a colon to formally introduce blocked-off quotations. You want the sentence that precedes the quotation to set up the quotation to follow so the reader knows who is speaking and in what context. The lead-in phrase (or phrases) should also suggest the reason for inclusion of the quotation. In other words, don’t assume the reader is automatically going to understand what point you are trying to make by including the particular quotation, spell it out for him or her:
The trial scene in Wright’s Native Son shows his contempt for American capitalistic society:
We need to turn our eyes upon the imposing sweep of streets and factories and buildings to see how completely they have conquered. But in conquering they used others, used their lives. Like a miner using a pick or a carpenter using a saw, they bent the will of others to their own. Lives to them were tools and weapons to be wielded. (389)
Note the clear lead-in phrase (a complete sentence followed by a colon, since it is a blocked-off quotation of more than four lines) that effectively sets up the quotation.
Quoting Poetry:
When quoting up to three lines of poetry, use quotation marks and work the lines into your writing. Use diagonal slash marks (/) to show where each line of the poem ends. For quotations of four lines or more, indent each line 10 spaces (and double space the same as the rest of the text). Do not use quotation marks.
Partial Quotations:
If you want to leave out part of the quotation, use an ellipsis to signify the omission. An ellipsis ( . . . ) is three periods with a space before and after each one.
“Wright believed passionately in the Communist future. Though he later became disenchanted with party discipline . . . At the time of Native Son, he hoped to persuade the party to provide the context by which blacks could discover their true identity” (Canby n. pg.).
Note: Anything you take out of a quotation should not change the author’s original meaning.
Your Works Cited List
The following information on works cited lists is found on Purdue University’s excellent Online Writing Lab (OWL): www.owl.english.purdue.edu/ This is a great site to bookmark because it is also updated regularly as new technology forces writers to have to cite information in new ways.
A list of works cited should appear at the end of your paper on a separate page. It provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and be able to read any sources you cite in the paper. Each source you cite must appear in your works cited list; likewise, each entry in the works cited list must be cited in the text of your paper. Here are some guidelines for preparing your works cited list.
Format:
· Begin your works cited list on a separate page from the text of the essay under the label Works Cited (with no quotation marks, underlining, etc.), which should be centered at the top of the page.
· Make the first line of each entry in your list flush with the left margin. Subsequent lines in each entry should be indented one-half inch. This is known as a hanging indent.
· Double space all entries, with no skipped spaces between entries.
· Keep in mind that underlining and italics are equivalent; you should select one or the other to use consistently throughout your paper.
· Alphabetize the list of works cited by the first word in each entry (usually the author’s last name but sometimes the first word of the title).
Basic Rules for Citations:
· Authors’ names are inverted (last name first); if a work has more than one author, invert only the first author’s name, follow it with a comma, then continue listing the rest of the authors.
· If you have cited more than one work by a particular author, order them alphabetically by title, and use three hyphens in place of the author’s name for every entry after the first.
· If no author is given for a particular work, alphabetize by the title of the piece and used a shortened version of the title for parenthetical citations.
· Capitalize each word in the titles of articles, books, etc. This rule does not apply to articles (a, an, the), short prepositions, or conjunctions unless one is the first word of the title or subtitle.
· Underline or italicize titles of books, journals, magazines, newspapers, and films.
· Use quotation marks around the titles of articles in journals, magazine articles, and newspaper articles. Also use quotation marks for the titles of short stories, books, chapters, poems, and songs.
· List page numbers efficiently, when needed. If you refer to a journal article that appeared on pages 225-250, list the page numbers on your works cited page as 225-50.
Basic Forms for Sources in Print
The MLA Style Manual, the Purdue University Website, and the Writer’s Inc. books provide extensive examples covering a wide variety of potential sources. What follows are examples from only the most popularly used sources. Consult these manuals in their print or online versions if your particular case is not covered.
Books
Author(s). Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.
Book with one author:
Henley, Patricia. The Hummingbird House. Denver: MacMurray, 1999.
Book with more than one author:
Gillespie, Paula and Neal Lerner. The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Peer Tutoring. Boston:
Allyn, 2000.
A part of a book (such as an essay in a collection):
Author(s). “Title of Article.” Title of Collection. Editor’s Name(s). Place of Publication:
Publisher, Year. Pages.
For example:
An article in a periodical (such as a newspaper or magazine)
Author(s). “Title of Article.” Title of Source. Day Month Year: pages.