CITING SOURCES

MLA STYLE

Why Cite Sources?

To avoid plagiarism To credit the source with the original idea

or information To lend credibility and authority to a thesis To back up ideas with credible illustrations,

known facts, and accepted statistics

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a crime – it is the the theft of someone’s else’s words, ideas, or research.

If you commit plagiarism, you can fail a course, be expelled from college, lose your job.

The easiest route to plagiarism today is cutting and pasting from the internet.

Avoid Plagiarism Introduce any material you have borrowed from another

source with a signal phrase that mentions the author (or if there is no author, the title ) of the source.

Put in quotation marks, any phrase or sentence(s) you have borrowed from the source.

If the quotation is longer than 3 lines, indent the quoted words.

ANY PHRASES OR SENTENCES QUOTED EXACTLY AND NOT IN QUOTATION MARKS OR INDENTED ARE PLAGIARIZED.

Help is Here

If you are confused about what plagiarism is or how to cite sources, please make an appointment with me to clarify any issues you might have. 

If this is a last minute issue, email me, and I will try to respond promptly. 

Internal Documentation

Citing Sources in the Text of an Essay

What Needs To Be Cited?

Quotations Paraphrased ideas Summarized information Facts Statistics Studies When in doubt, acknowledge the source of the

information

Ways To Cite Sources Include:

QuotationParaphraseSummary

Parenthetical Citation The parenthetical citation must match the first word

of the Works Cited citation -- usually the author’s last name -- and must include the page number of the quote, if taken from a paginated text: (Bragg 123).

Bragg, Rick. “Country Club Meets the Enemy: Country Music and Pigs.” 1999. Rpt. Somebody Told Me: The Newspaper Stories of Rick Bragg. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2000. 123-25.

In-text reference an in-text reference to show that a piece of

information, idea, quotation, etc. you have included in your writing belongs to another writer. It is always designed to be short because it is interrupting the text, and is usually in parentheses:

In recent years, there has been a rapid increase in car sales in Thailand (Honda 1995).

OR In recent years, there has been a rapid

increase in car sales in Thailand (Honda, 1995). OR In recent years there has been a rapid increase

in car sales in Thailand [1].

Remember...

The parenthetical citation must match the first word of the Works Cited citation, usually the author’s last name, and include a page reference or a year

Quotes repeat the author’s exact words. Paraphrases restate the author’s words in the

writer’s own words. Summaries abbreviate the author’s words.

Reference List

Overall Format The title -- Works Cited -- is centered at the top of the

page. It is not underlined, italicized or quoted. It should be the same font size as the rest of the citations.

The citation list is double-spaced throughout. The citation list is alphabetized. If there is no author, the citation begins with the title

of the work – quoted if an article or poem, underlined or italicized if a book.

The first line of each citation is at the margin; subsequent lines should be indented about ten spaces.

Sample Citations:

MLA FORMAT

A Book

Bragg, Rick. Somebody Told Me: The Newspaper Stories of Rick Bragg. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2000.

author title of book

subtitle of book city of publication

publisher year of publication

Chapter in a Book

Bragg, Rick. “Country Club Meets the Enemy:

Country Music and Pigs.” 1999. Rpt. Somebody

Told Me: The Newspaper Stories of Rick Bragg.

Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2000. 123-25.

author title of chapter

original publication date reprint

city publisher year of publication

inclusive chapter pages

title of book subtitle of book

Article in a Multi-Volume Reference Work

Larkin, Joan. "Frontiers of Language: Three Poets."

1974. Exc. in "Audre Lord.” Contemporary

Literary Criticism. Vol. 18. Ed. Sharon R.

Gunton. Detroit: Gale Research, 1982. 307-08.

author title of work

original date volume editor

city publisher year of publication

inclusive pages of work

excerpted title of article title of reference work

Article in a Journal

Maxwell, Bill. “Angry Young Man.” Forum:

The Magazine of the Florida Humanities Council.

XXII.2 (Summer 1999): 8-17.

author title of article name of journal

volume number date inclusive pages of article

Article in a Journal found in an Online Database

author title of article

name of journalEder, Richard, "The Greatest Woman Poet Since

Sappho." Los Angeles Times Book Review

18 Mar. 1990. 3+. Galenet: Literature

Resource Center. LINCC. 10 Jan. 2004.

date pages publisher database

provider date accessed

Article found on an Internet Site

author title of webpage date posted

name of websiteLu Yanguang. "Madame Li." 1997. 

Asia Pac: 100 Celebrated Chinese Women.

Trans. Kate Foster. 10 Feb. 2000 < http://www.span.com.au/100women/18.html > .

translator date accessed

URL: web address

Work in an Anthology

Whitman, Walt. “Osceola.” 1892. Florida in Poetry:.

A History of the Imagination. Eds. Jane Anderson

author title of work title of book original publication date

publisher year of publication

inclusive pages of work

subtitle of book editors

Jones and Maurice O’Sullivan. Sarasota:

Pineapple Press, 1995. 30-31.

city

Bibliography

Bragg, Rick. “Country Club Meets the Enemy: Country Music and

Pigs.” 1999. Rpt. Somebody Told Me: The Newspaper Stories

of Rick Bragg. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2000. 123-25.

______. Somebody Told Me: The Newspaper Stories of Rick Bragg.

Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2000.

Eder, Richard, "The Greatest Woman Poet Since Sappho." Los Angeles

Times Book Review 18 Mar. 1990. 3+. Galenet: Literature

Resource Center. LINCC. 10 Jan. 2004.

Using Numerical References

In some fields of study, the preferred style is to number references in the text rather than cite the author’s name. If the number style is used, the references are listed in numerical order, not in alphabetic order.

In the text:

Anecdotes intended to associate individual radar operators’ actual health problems with their use of radar equipment have appeared in the literature [1,2]. These concerns have led some law enforcement agencies to suspend the use of radar [2].

In the list of references

Appendices

Appendices follow the list of references. Number or letter appendices and give each a title as if it were a chapter.

Example: Appendix 1: Questionnaire Appendix 2: BOI Regulations Appendix A: Derivation of Equations