MLA Documentation Style

USING QUOTATIONS EFFECTIVELY

QUOTES ADD AUTHORITY TO YOUR WRITING

• Quotes, paraphrases, and summaries add validity and authority to academic essays.

• The majority of your work should be in your own words.

• Be sparing with quotations, especially if you are writing for a discipline which encourages summary or paraphrase over direct quotation.

• Strive to begin and end each paragraph in your own words.

• The first time you use a new source, introduce the speaker and the work from which the quote was taken.

WHEN SHOULD QUOTES BE USED?

• When another writer’s language is particularly memorable and will add interest and liveliness to your paper.

• When another writer’s language is so clear and economical that to make the same point in your own words would, by comparison, be ineffective.

• When you want the solid reputation of a source to lend authority and credibility to your own writing.

GIVING CREDIT TO ORIGINAL SOURCES

• All borrowed material, whether that material is in the form of words, pictures, charts, graphs, ideas, statistics, etc. must be cited.

• All summaries, paraphrases, and direct quotes must be cited.

• Summaries and paraphrases can be cited at the end of the summarized or paraphrased section, rather than at the end of each sentence.

• However, direct quotes must be cited at the end of the sentence which contains the quoted material.

DIRECT QUOTES

• Every direct quote needs the following 5 steps:

• 1. A signal phrase – introduces the quote and perhaps the speaker as well

• 2. The quote itself – generally in quotations marks (unless it is officially a long quote)

• 3. The citation – changes dramatically based on the citation style

• 4. Discussion – follows the quote and explains to the reader the significance, your train of thought in choosing the quote, etc. Don’t assume that your reader will make connections between your topic and the quote.

• 5. Reference listing – the source of the quote must be included on a Reference page, Works Cited page, Bibliography, Notes page, etc. based on the citation style in use

INCORPORATE YOUR QUOTE

• A quoted sentence should never stand by itself – this is considered a freestanding quotation or stand-alone quote.

• Quotes must be attached to one of your sentences.

• use a signal phrase.

• You can also connect a quotation to one of existing sentences with a semi-colon.

• Use a lower-case letter at the beginning of a mid-sentence quote and an upper-case letter to indicate the beginning of a quoted sentence.

• Ex: Researchers note that students “may be asked to utilize secondary research” (Smith, Smith, and Hamby 71).

SHORT QUOTES

• Fall within the regular line of text and include quotation marks.

• No longer than 4 lines of typed text in MLA format.

• Ex: Johnson and Smith argue that “we are all responsible for ourselves. Period” (219).

LONG OR BLOCK QUOTES• Long quotes are the opposite of short quotes.

• Indented and offset from the regular line of text.

• The number of lines constituting a long quote varies based on citation style in use. For MLA the rule is more than four lines of text.

• Quotation marks are dropped from a long text and the end-stop punctuation falls before the citation.

• Ex: The authors indicate that:

In some classes, you’ll be asked to conduct primary research. Primary research involves the researchers collecting the data themselves…some of the more popular methods include surveying participants, interviewing informants, and observing subjects and phenomena….You may also be asked to utilize secondary research [like] books, journal and magazine articles, blog posts, and newspapers….Both types of research are valid and important for the research process and both have their place in writing and researching across the curriculum. (Smith, Smith, and Hamby 70-1)

ELLIPSIS MARKS• If you want to quote the beginning and end of a passage but not the middle, use

ellipsis marks. Ellipses ( … ) show the reader where information was omitted.

• **Be sure that leaving out material does not alter the meaning of the selected quote.

• Use three ellipsis marks for material left out of a sentence. Use four ellipsis marks when the material omitted constitutes two or more sentences.

• Ex: Smith, Smith, and Hamby note that students “may be asked to utilize secondary research….These kinds of sources often provide the historical context, summaries of other sources, and critical perspectives” (71).

• OR…

• Ex: Experts note that students “may be asked to utilize secondary research…These kinds of sources often provide the historical context, summaries of other sources, and critical perspectives” (Smith, Smith, and Hamby 71).

BRACKETS• Brackets [ ] are used when the structure of the sentence you are quoting does not

match the structure of your sentence or you want to change a particular word ending or clarify the speaker’s meaning for your reader.

• Ex:

Original quote: I attached my material to the form incorrectly.

Incorrect Quote: Smith indicated that, “I attached my material to the form incorrectly” (57).

Correct Quote: Smith indicated that, “[He] attached [his] material to the form [IRS 1040] incorrectly” (57).

QUOTE-WITHIN-A-QUOTE OR INDIRECT QUOTE

• When you quote a speaker who is quoting someone else (a third-party quote), use double quotation marks “ ” for the outside of the quote and single quotation marks ‘ ’ for the inside quote.

• It must be noted in your citation that the speaker is quoted in your source. This means that both sources receive credit in the draft, but only your source receives credit on the Works Cited page.

• Ex: The authors note that “Andrea Stuart disagrees with this solution as she believes that ‘individuals are responsible not only for themselves but for those in their community as well’” (qtd . in Johnson and Smith 227).

OR…

• Ex: The authors note that one colleague “disagrees with this solution as she believes that ‘individuals are responsible not only for themselves but for those in their community as well’” (Stuart qtd . in Johnson and Smith 227).

OR…

• Ex: Johnson and Smith note that “Andrea Stuart disagrees with this solution as she believes that ‘individuals are responsible not only for themselves but for those in their community as well’” (227).

IN-TEXT CITATIONSMLA Documentation Style

• Header in upper right-hand corner:

• Go to Insert Page #

• In the drop-down box, click on Plain #3

• In front of the number at the blinking cursor, type your last name, space

• Double-click to close the header

MLA PAGE SETUP

• *Set document for double-spacing with 0pts. following the line of text

• Right click and select Paragraph

• In the box “Line Spacing” select Double Space

• In the boxes “Before” and “After” set the numbers to 0

• Select “Okay”

USE ACCURATE DOUBLE-SPACING

QUICK CHECK FACT SHEET• IQ = Incorporate the Quote into your sentence.• Don’t allow a sentence to begin and end with quotation marks, unless

you have your own words nestled between sections of the quote. This is a drop-in or stand-alone quote.

• Do attach the quote to one of your sentences. The easiest way is with a comma.

• WRONG: It is not uncommon to be a vegetarian nowadays. “Knowledge on adequacy and nutritional effects of vegan diets is still limited” (Waldmann et al. 947).

• RIGHT: While it is not uncommon to be a vegetarian nowadays, “Knowledge on adequacy and nutritional effects of vegan diets is still limited” (Waldmann et al. 947).

USE A SIGNAL PHRASE TO INTRODUCE A QUOTE

• The signal phrase should include the author’s name and the title of the article, book, or website the first time it is discussed in your draft.

• The signal phrase does not need to include the author’s name every time the source is used (after the first time) in your draft.

Signal Phrase• RIGHT: Medical journalist Karen Sullivan suggests that the diet should be

balanced and include at the very least “the required number of fruits and vegetables” as well as “good sources of protein and carbohydrates” (76).

Signal Phrase• RIGHT: Good sources of proteins include “fish, lean meat, chicken, turkey,

cheese, milk, yogurt, tofu, nuts, seeds, and legumes” (Sullivan 77).

ALWAYS CITE THE SOURCE

• Remember that this is a two-step process: (1) cite the information in-text or parenthetically, and (2) list the source on the Works Cited page.

• Remember: MLA uses Author’s Name and Page Number

• Remember: Always use the page number if you can find it; however, many websites do not list page numbers.

• Remember: The in-text citation must match the first word of the Works Cited page citation exactly.

• *Can you spot what makes the first sentence incorrect and what makes the second sentence correct as citation for a web source?

• WRONG: However, according to Maria Elena Jefferds, vitamin B12 deficiency is a problem “that doesn’t just affect vegetarians” (Lawson).

• RIGHT: However, according to Maria Elena Jefferds, vitamin B12 deficiency is a problem “that doesn’t just affect vegetarians” (qtd. in Lawson).

WORKS CITED PAGE MLA Documentation Style

• *These sources on the Works Cited page would look like this:

Works Cited

Lawson, Willow. “Brain Food.” Psychology Today Online Sept/Oct. (2003): n. pag.

LexisNexis. Web. 16 Feb. 2009.

Sullivan, Karen. The Parent’s Guide to Natural health Care in Children. Boston:

Shambala, 2004. Print.

ANOTHER EXAMPLE

WORKS CITED PAGE INCLUDES

• All sources that are in the body of the essay, including graphs, charts, pictures, and other visuals

• Alphabetical order of entries based on the authors’ last names

• Specific entries based on the particular type of document you are using; for example, books are different from journals, which are different from website articles

• Carefully consider what your source is and find the closest match for it from among the choices in your handbook or on the Purdue OWL.

CITING GLOBAL TRENDS 2030• Let’s use the following MLA format to cite Global Trends 2030:

United States. Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds. Dec. 2012. Director of National Intelligence. Web. Your access date.