Last Name, First. Book Title. City of Publication: Publisher, Year. Print
MLA Research
Sources
Book Source
List the information for your book source, following the format precisely. Pay close attention to punctuation. For a book with two authors, follow the second example.
Format:
Last Name, First. Book Title. City of Publication: Publisher, Year. Print.
Examples:
Tames, Richard. Anne Frank. New York: Wilson, 1999. Print.
Stevenson, James, and Thomas Roberts. Richard the Lionhearted. Boston: Penguin, 2001. Print.
Encyclopedia Source
Give the name of the author of the encyclopedia entry if it is given; if it is not provided, skip to the next piece of information, which is the title of the entry.
Format:
Last Name, First. “Article Title.” Encyclopedia Name. Year edition. Print.
Example:
Littleton, C. Scott. “Mythology.” The World Book Encyclopedia. 2002 ed. Print.
Internet Source
Give as much information required below as you can find. If the author’s name is not provided, skip to the title of the page you are viewing. For the sponsor information, look for a copyright symbol, which will usually list the name of the group or company who sponsors the site. You may have to search through several pages of the site to find all of the necessary information. If you are unable to find a sponsor or last update, you may put N.p. for no sponsor and n.d. for no update instead as shown in the second example.
Format:
Last Name, First. “Page Title.” Site Name. Sponsor, Last Update. Web. Date Accessed.
Examples:
Smith, Mary. “William Shakespeare.” Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, Apr. 2012. Web. 21 Aug.
2012.
“Author of the Little House Books.” Laura Ingalls Wilder. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Aug. 2012.
How to Cite Facts
The Basics
There are two ways to borrow information from a source: a direct quote or a paraphrase.
· A direct quote copies the exact wording from the source and uses quotation marks.
· A paraphrase also borrows information from a source, but instead of copying, you change the wording.
Whether you directly quote or paraphrase the information from the source, you will insert a parenthetical citation at the end of the information that gives information about which source it came from. When you give reference information about your sources, another person should be able to use that information to find and read the same research.
For example, pretend this is your text:
In a log cabin near Pepin, Wisconsin, on February 7, 1867, Laura Elizabeth Ingalls was born. Her parents were Charles Phillip Ingalls and Caroline Quiner Ingalls. They possessed a pioneering spirit that urged them ever westward, to lands of promise and hope. In 1932, Laura Ingalls Wilder published the first of her beloved “Little House” books, which described the pioneering of the Ingalls and Wilder families during the 1870’s – 1890’s. All of the nine manuscripts for these famous books were penned right here on Rocky Ridge Farm. Their publication made the Wilders well-known international literary characters.
-From the page “Author of the Little House Books,” on the Laura Ingalls Wilder site
These are examples of direct quotes from the source:
Laura’s family “possessed a pioneering spirit that urged them ever westward” (“Author of the Little House Books”).
“Their publication made the Wilders well-known international literary characters” (“Author of the Little House Books”).
This is an example of a paraphrase from the source:
Laura began to write her books after settling at Rocky Ridge Farm. In the books, she described the westward travels of her family (“Author of the Little House Books”).
What to Put in the Parenthetical Citation
What you put in the parenthetical citation depends on what type of source it is and what information about the source is available. Notice that in the examples above the citation goes before the period of the final sentence of the quote or paraphrase.
· The most basic citation for a print source is the author’s last name and the page number for the information.
Example:
(Tames 112)
· For an internet source, give the author’s last name. If there is not a name given, use the title of the page you accessed, placing quotation marks around the title. You will not put a page number.
Examples:
(Smith)
(“Author of the Little House Books”)
Avoiding Plagiarism
Give credit where credit is due! Always give reference information for your research.
Whenever you use someone else’s words, facts, or ideas in research, you must give that person credit; otherwise, you are guilty of plagiarism.
When you give reference information about your sources, another person should be able to use that information to read the same research.
There is no reason to plagiarize your information! You are expected to use other people’s information to write this paper, so you don’t need to pass it off as your own. The key is to do it correctly!
Any information about your subject that you read needs to be cited if it is put into your paper. Even though you will learn things about your subject by reading through your sources, you still learned it from those sources and need to give credit where credit is due.
How to Create a Works Cited Page
· You will give credit to the sources you used in a bibliography page called Works Cited.
· List your source information alphabetically by the first piece of information given for the source.
Example:
Works Cited
"Blueprint Lays Out Clear Path for Climate Action." New York Times site. New York Times, 8
May 2007. Web. 24 Sept. 2011.
Leroux, Marcel. Global Warming: The Erring Ways of Climatology. New York: Springer,
2005. Print.
Shulte, Bret. "Putting a Price on Pollution." US News & World Report site. US News & World
Report, 6 May 2007. Web. 24 Oct. 2011.
Smith, Don. “Global Warming.” The World Book Encyclopedia. 2003 ed. Print.
For more guidelines and information, visit the OWL at the Purdue University site:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/1/